Plus: It’s legal to give birth while streaming on Twitch ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 09, 2025 | Read online
# Apple's Trump app surrender, privacy fine and dumb people using AI dumbly Plus: It’s legal to give birth while streaming on Twitch
Edition 2435
"This is a couple of things made to look like computers. The one to the left originally had gumballs in it, and looks like the original iMac, sans keyboard." (Flickr: David Hall)
Hello! I’m writing to you from just outside of gate 32 at the Sydney domestic airport just waiting for the final boarding call for my flight to Brisbane. I’ll be on a panel at 5.30PM tonight at the Brisbane Writers Festival talking about my book if you wanna come along!
Oops! They just paged me. (Sorry for any typos - sent this one in a rush)
hello
# The News
### Apple is banning apps because Trump doesn’t like them
Apple has removed an app that archives footage of American immigration agents doing dodgy shit (404Media, $). Previously, Apple and Google have taken down applications like ICEBlock from US app stores that allowed users to track their covert and often violent immigration raids, citing rules that supposedly prohibit apps that could harm “target groups”…. Which apparently includes ICE agents (MigrantInsider)…. But the newly removed app Eyes Up is only about saving content like TikTok videos or news articles and has a delay to stop it from being used to track agents in real-time.
The Sizzle: It’s fucking crazy what’s happening in the US. For as long as we’ve had the modern internet, we’ve accepted with piggybacking off US laws because 1) tech companies are based there and 2) their approach was essentially like a “regulation starter kit” that we would top up with our own laws, so it didn’t matter that much. (Obviously it’s a lot more complicated than this and there’s a lot of things influenced by this, but on a surface level it’s more or less correct).
But, like I said, this is crazy. Like many parts of our lives, it’s clear that we have to start thinking differently about the United States and what its increasingly authoritarian, fascist-looking government means for our technology. We need to start building technology and systems that aren’t reliant on the US — unless we want to live like Trump is our president, too.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Exposing 100,000s of Australians’ health data online will set ya back about $6 million
The company behind a pathology clinic that exposed 223,000 Australians’ data is the lucky first recipient of civil penalties under Australia’s privacy laws (ITNews). Back in 2022, data from MedLab Pathology, including health information, Medicare card numbers and other personal info, was posted on the dark web following a cyber attack. Three years later, a court has agreed to accept a $5.8 million penalty and for clinics’ owner, Australian Clinical Labs, to pay the Information Commissioner’s costs (OAIC). Worth noting — penalties were capped at $2.22 million per contravention because they happened before the law was updated to allow up to $50m per contravention.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Dumb people using AI is going to end dumbly
Two interesting AI stories that came across my desk today:
The Australian Catholic University used AI as part of its decision to claim there were 5,000 cases of “alleged academic misconduct” via AI use at its campuses in 2024 (ABC News). Many of these students disputed the claim that they cheated and were eventually cleared. A post is circulating on social media that appears to be an AI-generated image of a missing boy — which is a real case — being abducted by a man into a 4WD — which is not known to be real (ABC News).
The Sizzle: A significant amount of ire that’s being directed at AI use and AI users comes back to the fact that people are using it in really stupid, irresponsible ways. In some of these cases, I don’t think there’s much you can do (like the missing boy image is clearly the result of an extremely dumb, selfish person), but in other cases, universities, companies should know better. All that being said, there’s clearly something inherent about the capabilities and power of AI technology that lends itself to “people now flippantly doing things that would have been much harder before” that is at the core of a lot of these awful uses of the tech.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Excessive data collection and the teen social media ban (Crikey, $) AFP to get power to possess and share child abuse material to target sex offenders online (The Guardian) Optus used wrong email address to inform gov of Triple Zero outage (iTnews) Qantas faces ransom demand as hackers threaten frequent flyer data leak (The Australian Financial Review, $) News Corp Australia chair says social media platforms are 'true monsters' and 'torment our children' (The Guardian) IGEA announces the 2025 Australian Game Developer Awards Winners (IGEA) Electric roads: Chris Bowen checks out wireless charging, says it's probably not for Australia (The Driven) Diversifying Australian risk capital (Inflection Points) DJI Power 1000 V2 power station review (GadgetGuy)
Rest of the world:
Fake Protest Videos Are the Latest AI Slop to Go Viral in MAGA World (Gizmodo) Insurers balk at multibillion-dollar claims faced by OpenAI and Anthropic? (Financial Times, $) Denmark wants to ban social media for kids under 15: How would it work? (Cybernews) What is this port? Thought it was Ethernet but I think I'm wrong. (Reddit) Prepare to feel old
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### It’s legal to give birth while streaming on Twitch
Content moderation is so hard at scale, and there’s so many edge cases that you can never really know if the banhammer will come down on you. That’s why Twitch streamer Fandy must have been relieved that the Twitch CEO dropped into the chat of her stream while she gave birth (The Verge), seemingly blessing the broadcast. Oh, also, that the baby was born alive and well.
| FearBuck @FearedBuck |
Streamer “Fandy” just gave birth to her baby live on stream, making her the first person ever to do so on Twitch
7:54 AM • Oct 8, 2025
4.48K Likes 150 Retweets
720 Replies
2025, man.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Samsung PRO Plus Sonic The Hedgehog + Adapter, 256GB microSDXC - $30.62 at Amazon US via AU Frient Electricity Meter Interface (Zigbee) - $49.21 at Amzon UK eufy Security 2k Indoor Pan & Tilt Camera - $97 at JB Hi-Fi Sonos One/Play Speaker Stand 1 Pair (White) - $99 at Sonos (Down from $399) Sennheiser Headphones at Sennheiser AU 599SE for $107 560S for $143 599 for $179 620S for $224 505 for $242 600 for $269 650 for $404 CMF Headphones Pro ANC Wireless Bluetooth Headphones (Matt Black) - $142 at Amazon US via Amazon AU Bose Quietcomfort SC Wireless Headphones - $209 at Bose AU Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Bone Conduction Headphones - $239 at Personal Digital via BIG W Marketplace DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro Camera Standard Combo - $399 at DJI Store (Refurbished) Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 47mm Bluetooth + LTE - $529 at Amazon AU
Computing
1 Year Google One AI pro (Gemini, 2TB Storage) for university students HP 960 4K Webcam - $44 at Officeworks Mercusys Routers at Amazon AU MR80X AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Router for $50.95 MR90X AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 Router for $127 Silicon Power 1TB microSDXC UHS-I Micro SD Card - $87.98 at Silicon Power via Amazon AU Logitech MX Master 3S Graphite or White (for Mac) - $97.85 at Amazon AU Seagate Barracuda 8TB 3.5inch Sata Hard Drive (ST8000DM004) - $193 at Amazon US via AU WD_BLACK 2TB SN770M M.2 2230 NVMe SSD - $244 at Amazon US via AU Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM - $253 at Amazon US via AU Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen 5 M.2 NVMe SSD - $287 at Amazon US via AU Western Digital 14TB Elements Desktop USB 3.0 HDD - $340 at Amazon US TerraMaster D6-320 DAS - $399 at TerraMaster via Amazon AU Sapphire Graphics Cards at Mwave RX 9060 XT for $529 Radeon RX 9070 Pure Gaming OC 16GB for $849 Sapphire Pulse / Gigabyte Gaming / XFX Swift 9070 XT 16GB Video Card - $979 at Mwave Gaming PC: AMD R5 7600, RX 9070 XT, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, 750W - $1699 at UMKLOGIX (ex NT)
Mobile
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G 128GB (New Customer Must Add Plan from $30/28-Day) - $249 at amaysim (Down from $349) Google Pixel 9a 128GB Obsidian - $647 at The Good Guys Xiaomi 15 512GB - $1099 at Xiaomi AU
# The End
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