Plus: Who down detects the down detector? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 20, 2025 | Read online
# The ban begins, AI regulation cuts and choose-your-own-moderation Plus: Who down detects the down detector?
Edition 2464
"CCTV Installation Services in Thane" (Flickr: Hi Tech)
Good afternoon Sizzlers! Sorry about the late edition — had my hands full with a sick two-year-old and a bit of tech news happening! Great to be back in your inbox.
# The News
### The ban has begun with Meta first out of the blocks
Australians are now being told if their Facebook and Instagram accounts will be deactivated under the imminent teen social media ban (ABC News, Guardian). Meta is the first cab off the rank with info about what will happen:
Accounts belonging to people judged to be under 16 are receiving app notifications, emails and even texts to tell them that their account will be deactivated. People can contest being banned by either doing a facial scan or uploading government ID. Meta will start deactivating accounts on December 4, ahead of the December 10 deadline, and will let users either pick them back up when they turn 16 or choose to delete them.
Meta also reiterated that it thinks the ban will hurt more than help and that they expect hiccups with age check technology — presumably referring to the accuracy issues with facial scans — that they’re required to use because of government requirements.
(I also reported yesterday that Instagram already appears to be blocking people from making teen accounts, something that Meta is “investigating”).
The Sizzle: The ban begins! Despite most of you being very across this, I expect a lot of Australians will only essentially find out about this now. I think it’s interesting that Meta is the first tech company to move on the ban and they are completely doing what the government has asked. My guess is because it hopes that being first will help fix its reputation (which is probably the worst among all major platforms). Also, it doesn’t hurt that Meta still will have Messenger and WhatsApp, while a major competitor, Snapchat, is caught up in the ban.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Everyone is trying to slash regulations for AI
AI regulations are on the chopping block around the world. The European Commission is proposing to water down its flagship GDPR privacy rules to make it easier to train AI on personal information (Verge). It’s also suggesting to pause forthcoming requirements for “high-risk” use of AI for the time being. These changes, framed as “streamlining” existing rules, need to be voted through and are already facing opposition (Reuters). Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is getting ready to start blocking state-based AI laws which essentially would put an end to any real attempts to regulate AI in the US for the time being (Politico).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Choose-your-own-rules is the future of content moderation
TikTok will soon let you choose to see less AI content (Engadget). Using Content Credentials metadata to identify what’s AI slop, TikTok will let users “dial things down” by choice. It’s a baby step towards the approach of Bluesky — which also announced some new moderation policies to allow more granular content reporting and account violations (Engadget) — which even allows users to sign up to additional voluntary moderation, like the Blacksky community (WIRED).
The Sizzle: Content moderation is one of the most complicated, fraught and least rewarding parts of running a social media platform. While I think there should be a clear baseline of what platforms will and won’t allow, I also think that handing more of the control for this to people is a good thing. This already happens in a de facto way via the recommendation engines, but I think making it more explicit and under a user’s conscious control can only be a good thing.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
US sanctions Russian bulletproof hosting provider Media Land over ransomware ties (BleepingComputer) NSW agencies conceal automated tech use from public, watchdog finds (InnovationAus) Telegram discontinues its federal court challenge to eSafety reporting notice (eSafety Commissioner)
Rest of the world:
Nvidia beats earnings expectations, even as bubble concerns mount (CNN) Meta’s chief AI scientist is leaving the company after 12 years (Engadget) Meta has released its ‘segment anything model 3’ which can “precisely identify, segment and follow any object in images or videos” (Meta AI) Major music labels strike deals with new AI streaming service (Bloomberg, $) Proctorio settles curious lawsuit with librarian who shared public YouTube videos (Ars Technica) OpenAI board member Larry Summers steps down amid Epstein file revelations (TechCrunch) Linus Torvalds is OK with vibe coding as long as it's not used for anything that matters (The Register) The App Store oligopoly (ACLU) I wrote in the Slack “you know one thing i was thinking about Apple and Google removing apps for the US government there is about the inherent weakness of Apple's closed ecosystem and why sideloading can be so useful for democratic reasons” The peaceful transfer of power in open source projects (Terence Eden's Blog) I am just so sick of AI prediction content (Verdikapuku)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Who down detects the down detector?
After yesterday’s outage that took down the DownDetector, Marner on the Sizzle forums thankfully shared how someone stepped up to create a service to let you know if the DownDetector is down: DownDetector’s Down Detector.
Which is all well and good, but what about if that goes down? Well, BernieTB also shared on the forum that there’s a Downdetector’s Downdetector’s Downdetector.
And yes, before you ask, here’s the Downdetector's Downdetector's Downdetector's Downdetector.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Baseus Bowie E19 TWS Wireless Earphones - White - $16.62 at BASEUS Co.,Ltd. Store AliExpress SanDisk High Endurance MicroSD Card at digiDirect 32GB for $18 128GB for $21 256GB for $45 Belkin Connect Surge Protector w/ Dual USB-C 30W Ports at EB Games eBay 6-Outlet for $47.22 8-Outlet for $52.47 EarFun Air Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Qualcomm aptX - $64.99 at EarFun AU via Amazon AU Sennheiser deals at eBay IE200 IEM for $108 HD 560S Open Back for $124 Momentum 4 Wireless over-ear headphones for $195 Apple Airpods Pro 3 - $359 at Techciti eBay Samsung Galaxy Ring - $399 at Amazon AU Dyson HEPA Big+Quiet Formaldehyde Purifier BP06 - $599 (Down from $949) 100 Inch Hisense TV 100Q7QAU - $2950 at appliance central LG OLED EVO G5 Series 77" and 65" 65" for $3645 77" for $5244 LG Black Friday up to 45% OFF Select LG OLED G5 at LG, Corporate & EDU 55” for $3779 65” for $3329 77” for $4949 83” for $6749
Computing
16% cashback on Lenovo & Lenovo Education Store EPOMAKER HE80 Hall Effect Gaming Keyboard 80% Black - $86.99 at Amazon AU Samsung 990 PRO 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - $227 at Amazon UK via AU Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite Wi-Fi, 128GB - $379 at Samsung Australia Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router 7 Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band - $461 at Sydney Mobiles eBay Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD - $575 at Amazon UK via AU Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2 in 1 Laptop 14", i7-13620H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $999 at Costco
Mobile
Motorola Phones at Kogan / DS eBay Motorola Moto G56 256GB/8GB, 6.7" for $161 Motorola Moto G86 Power 128GB/8GB, 6.7" for $211 Samsung Galaxy A17 5G 128GB - $229 at Telstra Google Pixel 10 128GB - $898 at Harvey Norman Google Pixel 9 Pro XL Obsidian at Telstra 128GB for $899 512GB for $1249
# The End
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