Plus: Introducing the Meta Ray-Ban 'glasshole' detector ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 19, 2025 | Read online
# Meta avoids split, Roblox age checking and even Down Detector was down Plus: Introducing the Meta Ray-Ban 'glasshole' detector
Edition 2463
"life of a computer operator - Mitcham House, Trafalgar House" (Flickr: John Lees)
# The News
### Instagram and WhatsApp will not be spun off from Meta after it was ruled not a monopoly
Meta is not a monopoly and therefore did not break the law with its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions in the early 2010s, a US judge has found (BBC). The judgment is the conclusion of a 2020 proceeding filed by the US trade commission against Meta which sought to break up the company. Judge James Boasberg said that Meta faced “fierce competition” in social media, citing the emergence of TikTok, the growth of YouTube and Meta’s apparently shrinking market share. FTC hasn’t said if it will appeal.
The Sizzle: This always felt like a long shot to me. Yes, Meta is huge and incredibly dominant. But I don’t know how you can look at the landscape of a gazillion platforms and believe that Meta is the only social media supplier, even if it clearly was looking to avoid competition from Instagram by buying it. In the same way that copyright law won’t defeat AI companies, I don’t think it’s wise to hope that a century old legal framework designed to break up oil companies is going to save us.
If we want to rein in the power of these massive tech giants, we’re going to have to be brave enough to pass some new laws.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Roblox to limit social features to people who’ve proven their age and to people of the same age
Roblox will limit chatting to users within the same age groups and, as a result, only if they’ve proven their age (Guardian Australia). The new features are being rolled out in Australia first after the company behind the wildly popular children’s game made a commitment to the eSafety Commissioner earlier this year (eSafety). Users will need to go through a facial scan to estimate their age, which is then used to sort them into one of six age groups starting from under nine to 21 and over, or be limited from chatting and speaking with other users.
The Sizzle: There’s been a lot of hullabaloo about Roblox being included in the teen social media ban, but I think this goes to show that there are ways to restrict how young people use technology without just throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### You know the outage is bad when even Down Detector is down
ChatGPT, X and even Down Detector were among the victims of the latest mass outage, this time caused by Cloudflare (Verge). For a few hours in the middle of the Australian night, sites that used Cloudflare were showing an error message “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed”. Cloudflare has a very thorough incident report page if you wanna check it out for yourself, but apparently the cause was an internal error.
not the Sizzle, though!
Further reading: Do Not Put Your Site Behind Cloudflare if You Don't Need To
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
FYI - I’m hearing that we’re going to get some more teen social media ban news from both the government and tech companies in the next day or so. Stay tuned!
‘Sad day for publicly funded science’: up to 350 more jobs to go at CSIRO (The Guardian) Optus fined after consumers’ bank accounts raided by scammers (Australian Financial Review, $) Here’s what the government is tracking to see if the teen social media ban is a success (Crikey, $) Authors dumped from New Zealand’s top book prize after AI used in cover designs (The Guardian) New round of EV charger grants will focus on regional towns and “iconic road trip routes” (The Driven) Defence rolls out Microsoft Copilot on protected network (InnovationAus, $) ACMA has put out an overview of its rules for SPACE communications (ACMA)
Rest of the world:
Mastodon CEO steps down (Mastodon Blog) Book Reports Potentially Copyright Infringing, Thanks To Court Attacks On LLMs (Techdirt) Google launches Gemini 3 (Google) AI-Powered Teddy Bear Caught Talking About Sexual Fetishes and Instructing Kids How to Find Knives (Gizmodo) Google’s ‘pivot to AI’ has cut popular music blog Stereogum’s ad revenue by 70% (The Verge) Tesla safety driver falls asleep during passenger’s robotaxi ride (Ars Technica) Oracle is underwater on its $300B OpenAI deal (Financial Times, $) A good blog on Nvidia ahead of its earnings tomorrow (Spyglass) A Simple WhatsApp Security Flaw Exposed Billions of Phone Numbers (Wired, $) Gayming icon and LGBTQ games pioneer Rebecca Heineman has died (Gayming Magazine)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Introducing the Meta Ray-Ban detector
You know how people are taking Meta Ray-Ban’s glasses, which the company says have safety guardrails to prevent misuse, and getting around those guardrails by deactivating the recording light (404Media, $) or installing their own facial recognition software (404Media, $)? Well, that’s a good reason to be alert to whether someone is wearing them.
Enter Australian art group The New Radicals who have built a Meta Ray-Ban detector that will tell you if someone is a “glasshole”:
Gottem
And, helpfully, they’ve put the code and design online for anyone who wants to build their own. Grouse!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
WiZ Tunable White and Colour Mobile Table Lamp - $17.50 at Amazon AU Meross Mini Smart Plug with Energy Monitor 4-Pack - $48.99 at Shuzu-AU via Amazon AU LIFX Beam Kit - $62.50 at Clever House Online via Amazon AU Tapo D205 Video Door Phone (2K 3MP, 160° Field of View, AI Detection, IP54) - $70.16 at Amazon DE via AU Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless Headphone, Black - $98 at Amazon AU eufy C30 Video Doorbell - $99 at JB Hi-Fi Philips Hue Outdoor Lights at Amazon AU Impress Outdoor Wall Light for $137 Black Garden Floodlight for $212 DJI Mic Mini (2 TX + 1 RX + Charging Case) Wireless Microphone - $138 at Amazon AU Ecowitt WS2910 Weather Station - $164 at Ecowitt Au via Amazon AU Wi-Fi 45mm for $297 DJI Osmo 360 Standard Combo - $569 at Amazon AU Dreame L10s Ultra Gen2 Robot Vacuum and Mop - $599 at Dreame Official AU Amazon (Down from $2499) Samsung 65" Crystal U8500F UHD Smart TV (Price Beat) - $765 at The Good Guys Roborock Qrevo C Pro - $899 at The Good Guys TCL 75" C6K QD Mini LED Google TV 2025 - $1035 at The Good Guys LG 48" OLED B5 AI UHD 4K Smart TV (2025) - $1148 at Amazon AU
Computing
Asus RT-BE92U Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router - $429 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $529) Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra 12GB RAM/256GB Storage - $1049 at JB Hi-Fi Lenovo LOQ 15.6" Gaming Laptop i5-13450HX 16GB/512GB RTX5050 - $1297 at Officeworks
Mobile
Boost prepaid SIM Starter Kit 290GB Data 12 Month Plan - $228 at Lucky Mobile CMF Phone 2 Pro 5G at JB Hi-Fi 128GB for $349 256GB for $389 Google Pixel 8a 5G 128GB - $397 at JB Hi-Fi Nothing Phone (3a) at The Good Guys 8GB RAM/128GB Storage for $444 12GB/256GB for $519 Google Pixel 10 128GB - $897 at JB Hi-Fi
# The End
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