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Valve Software's Steam service took the first steps into the mobile world on Thursday with the release of apps for Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Foe now, the apps on the Android Market and the iTunes Store don't allow users to play games. Instead, users can "participate in the Steam community wherever you go. Chat with your Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, read the latest gaming news and stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales," according to the iTunes description.

To date, Steam has remained a PC application, serving as a digital distribution service for Valve games as well as third-party titles, both independent as well as major publishers.

The apps appear to allow users to participate in Steam's social media services outside of games, thanks to a Friends list with text chat and support for Clans (groups of players). As of now, the Steam application seems to be a stepping-stone into the games world, similar to the way in which the OnLive Viewer app allowed users to communicate, but not actually play games. OnLive allows users to spectate, however, which the Steam app does not.

Bungie, Microsoft, and Activision have also published similar mobile apps, according to Gamespot.

Will Steam eventually offer mobile games? It seems likely, given that the Android Market and Amazon's own AppStore already provide similar functionality, including the ability to download and update games across a variety of mobile devices. Both platforms lack a community, however, unless you count the number of reviewers who rate the application.

Facebook is suing a marketing firm, accusing it of "spreading spam through misleading and deceptive tactics".

Adscend Media is alleged to have carried out "clickjacking".

The practice involves placing posts on the social network which include code that causes the links to appear on the users' homepages as a "liked" item without their permission. The links are designed to take users to other sites.

Ascend Media has not commented.

Facebook likened its security efforts to an "arms race" and said that it was committed to pursuing "bad actors".

"Facebook's security professionals have made tremendous strides against this particular form of attack and we are intent on eradicating it completely," said Craig Clark, the firm's lead litigation counsel.

"We will continue to use all tools at our disposal to ensure that scammers do not profit from misusing Facebook's services."

Washington State also filed a related lawsuit. Its lawyers said that they believed that this was the first time any state had gone to court to combat spam on the social network.

"We don't 'like' schemes that illegally trick Facebook users into giving up personal information or paying for unwanted subscription services through spam," said the state's attorney general, Rob McKenna.

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Twitter on Thursday announced that it is now able to block tweets that run afoul of certain countries' restrictions on speech, but that has prompted backlash from users who fear the micro-blogging service will honor takedown requests from repressive regimes.

In explaining the move, Twitter mentioned France and Germany, which ban pro-Nazi speech. But many users questioned how this might play out in the Middle East, for example, where social networks like Twitter and Facebook played a key role as organizational tools during last year's Arab Spring uprisings.

As a result, the term #TwitterCensored is now a trending topic in the United Arab Emirates. Many angry users have also pledged not to use Twitter on Saturday, Jan. 28 in protest of the move, much like the anti-SOPA/PIPA Internet blackouts here in the United States.

"Dear @Twitter, You're going to censor your own site and assist with oppression around the globe? #TwitterCensored #BloodOnHands," tweeted one user.

"ERROR 404 - Freedom not found #TwitterCensored #StopCensorship," a Twitter feed associated with hacker collective Anonymous wrote.

Reporters Without Borders penned a letter to Twitter executive chairman Jack Dorsey today, urging him to ditch the idea.

"We urge you to reverse this decision, which restricts freedom of expression and runs counter to the movements opposed to censorship that have been linked to the Arab Spring, in which Twitter served as a sounding board," director Olivier Basille wrote. "By finally choosing to align itself with the censors, Twitter is depriving cyberdissidents in repressive countries of a crucial tool for information and organization."

Another Anonymous feed, meanwhile, suggested that the move had something to do with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Tala's $300 million investment in Twitter.

"What did ya'll think was going to happen when Saudi invested $300,000,000 in Twitter? Saudi's are NOT big on free speech!! #TwitterCensored," the group tweeted.

Alwaleed, however, is a frequent tech investor. He owns stock in or has poured money into Apple, Hewlett Packard, and more, and was active in the dot-com boom, investing in Web companies such as Priceline.

Another Twitter user pointed out that Alwaleed only owns 3 percent of Twitter, which he said was "hardly decision-making" status.

Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the backlash, but in explaining the new policy yesterday, the company said that if "we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time," Twitter said.

It did not define what a "valid and properly scoped" request would entail, but stressed that "we strongly believe that the open and free exchange of information has a positive global impact."

Like other Web companies, Twitter has long encountered Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) takedown notices over questionable material. As part of yesterday's announcement, Twitter said it has expanded its partnership with Chilling Effects for a new page, chillingeffects.org/twitter, which shows Twitter-related cease-and-desist notices.

"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter concluded. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The Tweets must continue to flow."

Costa Cruises has offered to pay 11,000 euros in compensation to each of the more than 3,000 passengers aboard the ship that capsized near the island of Giglio two weeks ago, Italian consumer groups said on Friday.

The offer, negotiated by the consumer groups, is an attempt by Costa Cruises to limit the legal fallout of the accident.

Each passenger would also receive a refund on the cruise and costs of their return home. The offer applies to all passengers,

whether a child or an adult, who suffered no physical injuries. Injured passengers will be dealt with individually.

Those accepting the offer would have to agree to drop all future litigation, and receive payment within seven days.

Costa Cruises' U.S. parent company Carnival Plc (CCL.N) is already facing legal action for compensation.

Codacons, a consumer group which did not participate in the negotiation, is collecting names for a class action suit to be filed in Miami requesting 125,000 euros for each passenger.

Carlo Rienzi, president of Codacons, said the offer was insufficient and urged passengers to see a doctor to check whether they had suffered psychological trauma.

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