Hello friends, it's Sam here - your local angry digital rights activist and writer coming to you from Naarm. It's my Sizzle debut, and I gotta say, I'm honoured to be here!
For anyone scrounging around the remnants of Twitter/X, you've probably noticed the complete spiral of mis- and disinformation. This is of course made worse by the terrible decision to gut trust and safety teams and more recently, to remove the ability to report misleading content and to get rid of headlines from links. Today there's reporting on what is believed to be the first concrete evidence that a coordinated propaganda network are deliberately spreading false, inflammatory content related to Israel and Hamas. The EU has issued a warning to Musk that failing to moderate appropriately could incur a fine of 6% of Twitter/X's revenue.
Australia's national cyber security coordinator, Darren Goldie, has said that schools may be the next major target of ransomware groups. This is pretty alarming, given the huge volume of personal information that schools collect and hold about children, as well as the EdTech programs that many schools foist upon students (and parents). Such programs often function as, surprise surprise, tools for surveillance and data harvesting. What makes all this worse is that many Australian schools aren't covered by privacy law. Yikes.
Amazon Ring's companion app 'Neighbors' is a social platform that encourages Ring doorbell users to publish posts and footage of what's happening in their neighbourhood. As a privacy advocate this sounds like my idea of hell, but apparently it's popular in Los Angeles. An investigation from The Markup has found that the app has been generating automatic crime alerts to police officers who opted-in, even though users had no idea their posts would be shared with law enforcement. Amazon frames all of this as increasing safety, but as always we should be asking: safety for whom? Safety from what?
If you've ever wondered what it might be like to see the world through the eyes of Monet, never fear! Australian indie game developer Pat Naoum has created 'The Master's Pupil' based on the story of Monet's worsening eyesight and evolving style. It's a puzzle game featuring incredible hand-painted landscapes. Beaut! You can hear Naoum chat about it on ABC's The Art Show.
Ellen Nold, the manager for support programs for the Apple Link program at Apple Computer, in 1986. On her desk sits a Lisa, the first consumer-oriented personal computer to use a graphical user interface. Many of its features were incorporated into the Macintosh. (Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
📻 Blak Matriarchy - Barkaa
😎 à demain mes petits croissants!
💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.
👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.
🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!
💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.
The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong 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.