The bastards actually did it - kids under 16 will be banned from social media 12 months from now. The bill passed the senate last night after changes were made to ensure that "no Australian will be compelled to use government identification (including Digital ID) for age assurance". We still don't know which services will require age verification, we don't know how that verification will take place and the Communications Minister gains the power to decide these things at their discretion along with the eSafety Commissioner. I've followed Aussie tech laws since day one of The Sizzle almost 10 years ago and this amendment to the Online Safety Act is the shadiest, most populist driven, least evidence based tech law I've seen any government pass. Disgraceful.
Over at the Attorney-General's department, they're proud of passing an amendment to the Privacy Act. We will get a "new statutory tort to address serious invasions of privacy", a "Children's Online Privacy Code", "greater transparency for individuals affected by automated decisions" and probably the most controversial, "criminal offences to outlaw doxxing". Will be interesting to see who police decide to charge first with this new power. The Attorney-General said this is the "first tranche of recommendations from the Privacy Act Review", but fuck knows when tranche two will happen. It took 4 years for this half-arsed update to the Privacy Act to happen, compared to 4 months to ban kids from social media.
This is a bit old (March 2024) but Max Read describes their experience with Threads as a "gas leak social network" because "everyone on the platform, including you, seems to be suffering some kind of minor brain damage" and I 100% agree. I check in on threads every now and then and all I see in the algorithmic feed are people asking the most inane questions that is clearly engagement bait, and more worryingly, people I follow responding to that engagement bait in earnest thinking they're having a discussion or helping out. Gas leak is the perfect way to describe Thread's vibe.
Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.
With a peak performance of 2.79 exaFLOPS, El Capitan comprises more than 11,000 compute nodes and provides Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with a flagship machine 22 times more powerful than its previous fastest supercomputer, Sierra. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
📻 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gila Monster
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