Issue 2298 - Tuesday 25 March 2025

I forgot to say yesterday — I loved all the emails about the folding phones! Turns out we have a few foldies in our midst, although not all of them are happy. As always, feel free to reply, email me directly or let us know your thoughts on any story in the Slack server and forum.

The News

Silent Hill f isn’t banned but I won’t back down on Australia’s classification system

Silent Hill f isn’t banned in Australia. A Classification Board spokesperson confirmed to me that the game’s ‘Refused Classification’ has been removed from its database, that it does not currently hold a classification and will be classified before release. On Bluesky, Australian gaming reporter Edmond Tran suggested gamemaker Konami may have used an International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) tool which automatically gives it an Australian rating which is then initially adopted by our Classification Board (Classification Board). These automatic classifications — useful for the gazillion pieces of content created around the world that wouldn’t specifically seek Australian classification — are often appealed or resubmitted in a way that specifically addresses our domestic ratings so they’ll get a reduced classification. TLDR: Silent Hill f will probably get classified and released here at some point. (This is no longer an example of the system’s problems but FWIW I stand by my criticism of how Australia’s internet and digital content distribution is still regulated using a classification system made for when TV broadcast was the main game, an issue that I’m sure will come up again).

23andMe’s sale means customers have no idea who will own their DNA, and half their children’s DNA, and a quarter of their children’s DNA, and …

Just in case 23andMe customers already weren’t feeling worried enough about their DNA after the hack (The Guardian) and their deal with pharma companies (WIRED, $), the DNA testing company is now officially bankrupt and up for sale (404 Media, $). Like when I wrote about Pokémon Go creator Niantic a few weeks ago, the problems with allowing anyone to buy an enormous trove of private data — this time, arguably the most sensitive type of data — are pretty obvious. An ethical issue with DNA testing for me has always been ‘So you’re fine with a company having your DNA. What about your kids? And their kids? Or the rest of your relatives?’. DNA data has been used to catch killers using their family’s donations (Forbes) which seems like a good use, but what about when someone decides to use it for less good reasons? Anyway, a complicating factor in this story is 23andMe has been stuck in a weird governance fight for a while (The Guardian) so perhaps this process means the company will end up in good hands! Hope springs eternal, I guess.

BTW If you are someone who has done a 23andMe test, or knows someone who has, here’s how to delete your data (Washington Post, archived). I would get onto that ASAP.

Google says news doesn’t make them any money, but its actions suggest otherwise

Google has been running an experiment on its users (Google Blog). It says it removed news from the search results of a sample of its EU users and found that its advertising revenue didn’t drop. The point of this was to counteract “inaccurate reports that vastly overestimate the value of news content to Google,” says the company’s director of economics. This is similar to an argument made during the debate about the (admittedly silly) news media bargaining code by Meta who says only 3% of its feed is news content (ABC News).

I fundamentally don’t accept the conclusions that they’ve drawn from their experiments and data. Google and Meta are the ones who set the amount of news content shown, and it’s in their interests to downplay the value of news to them. It’s like if you ran a supermarket, hid a store product in the backroom, and then said “well this product isn’t that important to us because no one seems to be buying it!”. Also, think about it: if Google removed news, would you keep using it? Would you keep trusting that it was giving you high-quality information? Yeah, I’d still probably Google some stuff, but I might look at alternatives. The appeal of Google is that it’s supposed to have everything. If Google really thinks news isn’t valuable and only causes them headaches, why doesn’t the company get rid of it? Because they’re not being honest.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

How much does the internet weigh? (It’s not a couple of strawberries)

You’ve probably heard that the internet has been estimated as weighing about as much as a couple of strawberries. This was the result of some back-of-the-envelope math by then-Harvard physicist Russell Seitz’s calculations of the mass of the energy in the servers (Adamant blog). As cute as that is — strawberries as a unit of weight is so nice and yummy — a WIRED piece debunks this common wisdom and comes up with a new weigh of calculating it (WIRED, $). I won’t spoil it but I will say it’s a bit harder to count in strawberries.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.