Issue 2301 - Friday 28 March 2025

Folks, enjoy your weekend! And shout-out to Sizzler Ben who shared news of an actually very bad — and on-going — data breach at retailer Sydney Tool (CyberNews).

The News

This is not shaping up to be a tech-lection

The election has been called (this time for real) for May 3! So, what should Sizzlers expect over the next five weeks with regard to tech policy? My guess is: not that much. For the most part, neither major party is campaigning on their stances on big tech because they’re pretty similar. Policies like the teen social media ban, the news media bargaining incentive and the ex-ante regulation all have bipartisan support. The biggest tech difference between Liberals and Labor is the nuclear policy and, despite the efforts of some groups (Crikey, $), Peter Dutton is trying not to talk about it. Dutton’s big cost-of-living policy, the fuel excise cut, won’t help EV owners (The Driven) and the Opposition has flagged it might rollback vehicle emission standards, too (The Guardian Australia). A lot can happen in five weeks but nothing I’ve heard suggests that we should hold our breath for a lot of action. (PS: A Labor staffer rang me to make the point that, while this budget didn’t have that much for tech, previous budgets had things like the PsiQuantum investment. Take from that what you will!)

A reminder: if you see anything weird or interesting related to the election — particularly when it comes to da internet — send me an email or Signal. I love tips!

PNG cuts Facebook as it gets an ‘OG’ friends-only feature (these facts are not related)

Facebook has been shut down in Papua New Guinea by its government using anti-terrorism laws (ABC News). The country’s police minister said it is a “test” to deal with “unchecked proliferation of fake news, hate speech, pornography, child exploitation, and incitement to violence on platforms”. Opposition MPs and the media have slammed the move. As is often the case with international reporting, it’s hard to get a sense for how legitimate the reason for the ban is but, funnily enough, I wrote for the ABC in 2020 (!) about how fucking insane PNG Facebook is (ABC News). At the time, Meta didn’t have moderators who spoke PNG national languages so it is literally the wild, wild west — non-consensual sexually explicit imagery and child abuse material is rife on the platform. On the topic of Facebook, the company is rolling out an “OG” Facebook feature which shows you content from just your friends (Engadget). There’s a lot to say about the state of Facebook — which remains the world’s most used social network — but my biggest question: who has friends still posting to Facebook in 2025?

Anyone else finding themselves straying from Google…?

I’m pretty much a professional Google user. A surprising amount of “internet reporting” is just jamming different combinations into Google until you get something useful. And yet, even I find myself drawn to alternatives these days because of how shitty it’s getting. Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern wrote a nice piece this week about the different ways that AI options like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini are undeniably better than Google when it comes to types of search (WSJ, $). For me personally, I find Google works well when you know exactly what term you’re looking for (“Sizzle newsletter sign-up”) but these AI chatbots are better when you vaguely know but don’t know exactly "(“What’s a great value tech newsletter that covers Aussie and international news from a Aus perspective written by a really handsome and funny guy”). Outside of AI, Kagi continues to be a really good alternative. I stumbled across Kagi’s search stat leaderboards for the websites that are most blocked or lowered (Pinterest) or pinned or raised (Wikipedia) in its customised search rankings (Kagi). Very curious to how y’all are searching right now — please tell me!

Leftovers

Oh, Also

Play with this famous German organ online

It’s Friday, let’s have some fun! The City of Hamburg, Germany, has created a faithful digital reproduction version of famed St. Jacobi organ made by renowned craftsman Arp Schnitger that you can play in your browser (Orgelstadt-hamburg.de)! It’s a great example of how fun things like this can bring otherwise unaccessible bits of culture to life for new audiences.

Bargains

Electrical & electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.