Plus: Retro gaming YouTuber could go to Italian jail because of his reviews ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 17, 2025 | Read online
# Steam's new rules, WeTransfer AI walkback and public transport Facebook scam Plus: Retro gaming YouTuber could go to Italian jail because of his reviews
Edition 2376
"Paul playing a racing game on the Bally Computer System" (Flickr: RighteousDork)
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# The News
### Steam admits that its payment providers decide what games are on its platforms
Steam has started removing games from its platform because of pressure from payment providers (Automation). The massive gaming platform updated its T&Cs to say that it won’t allow content that “may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors” and started removing a large number of explicit games with incest/slavery themes (SteamDB) following a campaign targeting PayPal(The Australian, $)
The Sizzle: I get things like “incest sex simulators” aren’t exactly the most popular thing to defend, but I feel uneasy about companies being forced to censor legal art and culture because financial companies like Paypal don’t want to be associated with it. My understanding is that Steam hides adult content, so why should a third party step in to stop adults indulging in (admittedly taboo and what many would consider distasteful) fantasies? As always, this is a reminder that the most powerful content moderators on the internet are the payment providers.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### WeTransfer removes vague ‘machine learning’ terms after outcry
WeTransfer has walked back user terms saying it could use files uploaded to its service to train “machine learning models” after a public backlash (BBC). The file sharing platform changed its terms of use, then shortly afterwards changed them again to rule out training AI on user content and selling data to third parties.
The Sizzle: WeTransfer said it was hoping to use machine learning technology to improve its content moderation — which, to me, is a reasonable use of the technology. But the fact that WeTransfer has explicitly ruled out training AI models for sale is a good thing. I don’t think it’s much ado about nothing to make companies be more specific about what they do, rather than broad terms which give them latitude to do whatever.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Global public transport impersonation Facebook scam targets Australia
Australia is among the 60 countries targeted by a global scam impersonating public transport services on Facebook (Maldita). The operation, which predominantly uses Russian web providers and appears to have people mostly in Vietnam, uses Facebook pages and advertisements purporting to be for a local transport organisation to funnel people to pay for a fake discounted travel card.
The Sizzle: Despite the fact that many of the offending pages and advertisements were reported to Meta, the company hadn’t done anything to most of them after a week. Poking around Facebook these days, it really feels like the platform has become so big — and the company’s attention to it so small — that it’s become this lawless, ungovernable digital wild, wild west.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Meta’s warning to Anthony Albanese on AI laws (The Australian, $) Google ends fact-checking funding in Australia after letting AAP FactCheck deal expire (Crikey, $) New Chinese criminal software 'Darcula' tricking consumers into falling for fake website (ABC News) Strong winds blamed for 427 drones falling into Yarra River during Women’s World Cup light show (Guardian Australia) Australia adopts AS IEC 62443 as national cyber security standard to protect critical infrastructure (Cyber Daily AU) The national audit office is mulling investigations into the Consumer Data Right, the digital identity scheme and the federal government’s oversight of new technologies (InnovationAus, $) One misclick away: How I found a critical vulnerability in a Sydney dating app (Hame dot page) Telstra warns network upgrade funds being eaten up by compliance costs (IT News) Your modem could be too slow for NBN’s faster internet speeds (Gadget Guy) Chinese firms rush for Nvidia chips as US prepares to lift ban (Ars Technica) Intel layoffs exceed 5,000 across US (Manufacturing Dive) OpenAI to take cut of ChatGPT shopping sales in hunt for revenues (FT, $) Grok 4 benchmark results: Tops math, ranks second in coding (Bleeping Computer) Grok's new porn companion is rated for kids 12+ in the App Store (Platformer, $) Beeper’s all-in-one messaging app relaunches with an on-device model and premium upgrades (TechCrunch) Google’s AI can now make phone calls for you (The Verge) Mercedes-Benz will let you use an in-car camera in Microsoft Teams while driving (The Verge) Malware in DNS (Domain Tools) Lookout Discovers ‘Massistant’ Chinese Mobile Forensic Tooling (Lookout Research) Nintendo’s Zelda movie has cast Princess Zelda and Link (The Verge) Someone “worked on a book with ChatGPT” for weeks and then sought help on Reddit when they couldn’t download the file. Redditors helped them realized ChatGPT had just been roleplaying/lying and there was no file/book… (Bluesky)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Retro gaming YouTuber could go to Italian jail because of his reviews
A retro gaming YouTuber is facing potential jail time for possessing an emulator device seized by Italian police (YouTube). According to YouTuber Once Were Nerd, Italian police raided his house and seized devices including handheld consoles created by Chinese company ANBERNIC after he uploaded a review of the device. Apparently, the guy is facing up to 3 years in jail or thousands of dollars in fines for copyright violation because the ANBERNIC devices contain copyrighted ROMs (Android Authority). I mean, I’m all for the state cracking down on gaming, but even I think this is a bit ridiculous.
MI HANNO DENUNCIATO. ADDIO o ARRIVEDERCI?...
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
$30 off $100 Good Guys coupon for in-store purchases Bump Mini Karaoke Machine - $10 at Coles Blue Snowball Ice USB Microphone Black - $49.98 at EB Games Urban 6-in-1 MagSafe M6 Wireless Charging Station, White - $49.99 at MobileSkin Blavor Solar Power Bank 20000mAh with Built-in Cables - $55.99 at Amazon Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo - $129 at BIG W Samsung Galaxy Watch7 LTE 44mm (Green) - $349 at JB Hi-Fi Ffalcon 75" U65 LED Google TV (2025) - $799 at JB Hi-Fi ECOVACS Deebot T30 Omni Robot Vacuum Cleaner - $799 at ECOVACS Robotics Amazon AU Sony 55" Bravia 8 4K HDR Oled Google TV - $2695 at JB HiFi
Computing
Aigo C275P mATX Computer Case at Aigo-darkflash Store AliExpress Black for $36.39 White for $38.88 Kensington SD5750T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Dock - $139.99 at Horizon Store Ubiquiti U7-Pro-XG Ceiling-Mounted 6-Stream Wi-Fi 7 AP, 10GbE (No PoE Injector) - $399 at Device Deal XFX Swift OC Gaming Edition or Powercolor Reaper AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB - $579 at Scorptec QNAP TS-264-8G + Free 8GB RAM Upgrade to 16GB - $745 at QNAP Shop PowerColor Radeon Hellhound RX 9070 XT 16GB Graphics Card - $1099 at Centre Com Palit GamingPro-S GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB Graphics Card - $1349 at Centre Com MacBook Air 13-Inch (M4 Chip, 10-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 2025) - $1719 at Emporium Electronics Palit GameRock OC GeForce RTX 5090 32GB GDDR7 Graphics Card - $3999 at Centre Com
Mobile
Up to 50% Cashback on Vodafone $35, $55 or $250 Prepaid Starter Pack iPhone 16e 128GB and Google Pixel 9a at JB Hi-Fi Google Pixel 9a for $697 iPhone 16e 128GB for $887 Google Pixel 9 Pro XL at Harvey Norman 128GB for $898 256GB for $998 512GB for $1098 Apple iPhone 15 512GB - $1499.98 at Costco (Membership Required)
# The End
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