Plus: Spanish football piracy keeps taking the country’s internet offline ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 22, 2025 | Read online
# Optus' 000 recklessness, Trump tech visa crackdown, inside social media ban Plus: Spanish football piracy keeps taking the country’s internet offline
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Edition 2423
"A computer for every family - North Macedonia" (Flickr: WeBalkans EU)
# The News
### Optus’ 000 might have been technical, but the real problem was its carelessness
A failed “routine firewall” upgrade and “process failure” created a 13-hour 000 outage linked to four deaths, Optus said. The embattled telco will publish the results of an investigation into its second 000 outage in two years, this one affecting 624 emergency calls in South Australia, Northern Territory, WA and small pockets of NSW last week (SBS News). Optus said it received at least 5 calls during the outage about 000 not working before acting, with media noting that Optus had offshored its call centre (AFR, $). The regulator, ACMA, and Communications Minister Anika Wells said they weren’t told about the outage until after it happened and also promised a full investigation (ABC News). Despite heavy criticism of the telco, industry and media figures have pushed back against calls for the new CEO Stephen Rue to step down (AFR, $).
The Sizzle: I don’t think Optus’ problem is technical, or that its call centres are offshore. What it sounds like is that Optus was reckless enough not to care enough whether its systems are working. When it comes to computers, we all know that shit breaks sometimes. But getting several complaints in a row and not putting it together? That’s a problem, no matter where the call centre is. Rue also said that “established processes were not followed” which makes me wonder if we’ll find out that routine checks after an upgrade were not done. These all sound like sloppy, unnecessary mistakes. These mistakes cost lives.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Trump’s visa crackdown is tech suicide
Migrants who do sought-after work — like many in tech — will need to pay at least $150,000 to apply for an American visa under new Trump administration rules (Axios). On Friday, US President Donald Trump signed an order supposedly aimed at encouraging companies to hire American workers by drastically increasing the cost for the H-1B visa, which are primarily used by American tech companies. This was initially said to be the cost each year of the visa, starting from this week (Reuters) but has been walked back to being just a one-time six figure fee for applicants (SBS News). Anyway, this freaked out everyone, leading to companies like Amazon and Microsoft telling H-1B visa holders abroad to jump on a plane ASAP (Business Insider).
| Aaron Rupar @atrupar |
Trump signs an EO on H-1Bs raising "the fee that companies pay to sponsor H1-B applicants to $100,000"
9:41 PM • Sep 19, 2025
4.92K Likes 983 Retweets
1.14K Replies
The Sizzle: Just about every Western country’s politics is obsessed with “migration” (which is largely actually about race and racism) at the moment. What’s crazy is that all of these countries are super reliant on migration (FT, $). Australia is like America because we have an enormous number of the world’s most productive, enthusiastic workers who are desperate to move here. If Australia was smart, we’d be opening the doors right now to the people fleeing the US because of its war on migration (AFR, $) and science (The Guardian).
that’s one way to deal with it
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Inside the teen social media ban’s creation
With just over two months until the teen social media ban kicks in, the AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones has written a big piece on how the policy came together behind closed doors (AFR, $). Some choice bits in there:
Albo getting a phone call from Trump mid-meeting with pro-ban group 36 Months and a pair of grieving parents; a group of Australian tech leaders who wrote a letter supporting the ban that was never sent; a comment from the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant that seems to allude to the bizarre loophole in the policy that will allow teens to still use TikTok and YouTube Shorts when logged out — something I pointed out in November last year (Crikey, $).
On the logged-out bit, Guardian tech reporter and friend of the Sizzle Josh Taylor had a good piece looking at the insane, extreme, mindrotting slop that you can see on TikTok and Shorts even when logged out.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Warning about ongoing targeting of online code repositories (Cyber dot gov dot au) Data centre lobbyists seek to weaken Australia’s climate targets (Crikey, $) Australia brokers cloud deal for unnamed Pacific nation (InnovationAus, $) SA Liberals' star candidate in spotlight after AI algal bloom 'admin error' (ABC News) Meta-Oakley Vanguard smart glasses hands-on impressions (GadgetGuy) Parliament mulls EU-wide social media age limit of 15 (Euractiv) Internet Archive’s big battle with music publishers ends in settlement (Ars Technica) AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities (Financial Times, $) ChatGPT registers huge surge in traffic as schools and classes resume (TechRadar) AI Was Supposed to Help Juniors Shine. Why Does It Mostly Make Seniors Stronger? (elma dot dev) A guide to the best YouTube downloaders (Windows Read Me) Trump says Murdochs are potential TikTok deal partners (CNBC) Author of Meta exposé faces bankruptcy after ban on criticising company (The Guardian)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Spanish football piracy keeps taking the country’s internet offline
Football is a way of life in Spain. But, as accessing sport gets more expensive, people are naturally turning to the High Seas to watch La Liga. In response, La Liga has successfully petitioned Spain’s courts to block “entire IP ranges” suspected of hosting pirate streams, blocking platforms like Twitch and Cloudflare (TorrentFreak).
ooop
The only problem? It doesn’t seem to be actually stopping piracy (Reclaim The Net)
Yet despite this surge, only 11% of flagged streams were actually taken offline
Reclaim The Net
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
UGREEN Bluetooth 6.0 Audio Adapter Stereo System with LDAC Hi-Res Audio - $31.99 at amazon Tapo D235 doorbell - $147 at Amazon AU Sony WH-1000xm5 SA Premium Noise Cancelling Wireless over-Ear Headphones with Soft Case - Black - $379 at Amazon Jamo S 807 5.0 Home Theatre Speaker Package - $499 at Digital Cinema TCL 50" P7K 4K QLED Google TV - $574 at Appliances Online Eufy S3 Pro Add-on Camera - $559.20 at Supercheap Auto TCL C6K 65" 4K QD-Mini LED 120hz [2025] - $906 at Appliances Online TCL 75" C6K QD-Mini LED TV - $1214 at Appliances Online Reolink RLK16-820D8-A Smart Security Kit in 4K UHD, Power over Ethernet - $1208 at Reolink AU (Down from $1690)
Computing
20% storewide at HP eBay Rapoo VT9Pro 4K Wireless Gaming Mouse - $32.99 at LH-RAPOO-US-DirectStore Amazon AU 8BitDo Retro 18 Mechanical Numpad Keyboard (Fami Edition) - $59.99 at 8BitDo Official Store AU via Amazon Tenda Be5100 Dual-Band 2.5ge Wi-Fi 7 Router (Te6l Pro) - $119 at Umart Lexar NM790 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - $332 at Mwave Acer Connect T7c BE6400 Mesh Wi-Fi 7 Router at Harvey Norman 2-Pack for $348 3-Pack for $478 Asus Prime Radeon RX 9070 16G OC Edition Gddr6 Graphics Card - $899 at Centre Com Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED Monitor S3225QC - $977 at Dell Omen 31.5" OLED 240Hz - $1199 at HP eBay AOOSTAR GODY Mini PC AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX + Radeon RX 7600 XT GDDR6 8GB Discrete - $1299 at AOOSTAR-AU via Amazon Legion Pro 5 - 16" OLED Gsync / AMD Ryzen 7 8745hx / 1TB SSD / 32 GB RAM / RTX 5060 + 27" Gaming Monitor & Laptop Backpack - $2381 at Lenovo
Mobile
Boost Mobile 365 Day Plan 300GB data - $250 at Costco Samsung S25+ and S25 Ultra at Kogan & Dick Smith eBay S25+ 256GB for $1144 S25+ 512GB for $1320 S25 Ultra 256GB for $1406 S25 Ultra 512GB for $1582 Samsung S25 Ultra at Samsung 256GB for $1484 512GB for $1664 1TB for $2024
# The End
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