This Month
Snook, Zendaya, Anthony Pratt shine at Met Gala
Fashion’s biggest night is underway at the Met Gala in Manhattan, with hosts Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo among the first to arrive.
Trump posts image of himself as Pope
The idea of ‘Pope Trump’, as some called it, was immediately polarising. Some Catholics did not see the humour in it.
Revenue falls at Google’s Australian operations
The Australian arm of the $3 trillion tech giant reported lower revenue in 2024. It made less from selling ads and cloud services.
Why investors (but not workers) are raving about Microsoft, Meta
The big-tech AI party seemed to be winding down, but Meta and Microsoft say the night is still young.
April
Pope Francis, promoter of more compassionate church, dies
The first Latin American pope worked to make the Catholic Church more inclusive with a focus on poverty and human suffering.
TikTok, Meta, Snapchat demand answers on YouTube ‘sweetheart deal’
The tech giants say Michelle Rowland’s unexplained favouritism towards Google’s video platform undermines new social media age restriction laws.
How Hollywood learnt to love video games
While superhero franchises flag, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ shows the industry has finally cracked the formula for translating popular games into films.
YouTube exemption exposes teen social media ban as a sham
The government’s preferential treatment of YouTube undermines the purpose of its under-16s social media ban, and is unfair to the other tech industry players.
Wayne Swan whitewashes out the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge
What’s worse: Labor fighting for workers rights from the VIP lounge or Swan’s photo editing skills when he tried to hide it?
Zuckerberg admits he bought Instagram because it was ‘better’
The US government is trying to unravel Meta’s acquisition of rivals Instagram and WhatsApp.
Mark Zuckerberg takes stand to defend Meta against antitrust suit
The US government has contended that Meta illegally cemented a social media monopoly by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp when they were tiny start-ups.
Ex-Facebook executive says Zuckerberg undermined US security
Sarah Wynn-Williams testified to Congress that the social media giant threatened national interests while cozying up to China, accusations Meta denies.
I found purpose in my job once I tried this
Professional services firm HPX runs an employee incentive program encouraging staff to learn new skills and do an activity outside their comfort zone.
Laurence Escalante gets real deep on Instagram bender
From Below Deck to righteously correcting injustice to philosophy, the Rich Lister’s recent social media rant covered it all.
‘I have four days to live’: Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre
The 41-year-old has shared a picture from a hospital bed, saying a speeding bus collided with her car, and that she has gone into kidney renal failure.
March
Labor’s latest excuse for YouTube ban exemption
New documents reveal a third reason the Albanese government has exempted YouTube from its social media ban for people under 16: “Broad community sentiment.”
Under fire Facebook returns to its roots: Showing posts from friends
After years of pushing suggested content to users, Facebook has now added a separate news feed featuring posts shared only by people’s friends and family.
Influencers invited on campaign trail in election first
Canberra press gallery membership will no longer be a prerequisite to join the travelling pack with “content creators” boarding the bus for the first time.
Influencers v has-beens turns the budget into a showdown
Faced with a dire budget set-up, Chalmers threw open the doors to the nation’s social media self-promoters.
Is KKR’s bad bet on cycling the start of Europe’s private equity reckoning?
As one of the first pandemic era purchases to go into a full restructuring, Accell may be the canary in the European coal mine for a crop of PE deals struck at high valuations.