Google clashed with France in a top EU court on Tuesday arguing it feared for freedom of speech if forced to apply Europe's "right to be forgotten" principle worldwide.

Twitter on Thursday announced it had banned far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its platform as well as the account of Infowars, the website he operates.

The EU on Thursday approved U.S. tech giant Apple's plan to buy leading song-recognition app Shazam, saying the move would not reduce choice for music streaming consumers.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said late Tuesday that the leading social network and other internet firms are in an arms race to defend democracy.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey told lawmakers Wednesday the social network is not operated on the basis of "political ideology," rejecting claims  of bias against conservatives.

"Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," Dorsey said in prepared remarks to a hearing with U.S. technology giants.

A large number of Americans are stepping back from Facebook in the wake of recent scandals over the social network's handling of private user data, a study showed Wednesday.

Europe's biggest news agencies accused Google and Facebook of "plundering" news for free on Tuesday in a joint statement that called on the internet giants to share more of their revenues with the media.

Facebook users around the world reported the social network was briefly inaccessible Monday, with many taking to Twitter to voice their frustration.

Reports of issues on the downdetector.com website began around 2100 GMT, with users particularly affected in North America and Europe. 

Facebook's definition of what constitutes "terrorism" is "overly broad" and risks leading to censorship and the arbitrary denial of access to its services, a UN rights expert warned Monday.

Apple has sent out invitations to a September 12 event at which it is expected to unveil new additions to its money-making iPhone line-up.