This Month
Trump hints at change of heart on TikTok ban
The role of the popular social media app in last month’s election victory may have convinced the president-elect to give parent company ByteDance a reprieve.
- Gram Slattery
Meta settles Aussie Cambridge Analytica case for $50m
Facebook-owner Meta will appoint an independent administrator to distribute $50 million to thousands of Australians who were indirectly caught up in the 2018 data harvesting scandal.
- Tess Bennett
Publishers prepare to take on TikTok over news
News publishers have successfully campaigned to have TikTok-owner ByteDance included in the government’s revised media bargaining rules.
- Tess Bennett
- Immersive
- Perspective
The Australians inside Andrew Tate’s online ‘university’
Leaked member data from the controversial influencer’s “financial education platform” reveals its popularity.
- Joshua Peach and Lucy King
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Big tech should not be above the law of the land
In general, the last thing Australia needs is a new tax. But Meta’s thumbing its nose at Australia’s pioneering regulation justifies Labor’s attempt to lay down the law to the tech giants.
- The AFR View
- Updated
Media groups to push Meta for payment after Labor announces TikTok tax
Apple and Microsoft could also be caught by the policy with their Apple News and LinkedIn products if they meet the $250 million Australian turnover threshold.
- Ronald Mizen and Amelia McGuire
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram services start to return after outages
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp appear to be recovering after they suffered major outages.
- Paul Smith
Tech giants to be punished if they don’t pay for news
The big stick approach set to be announced on Thursday would force recalcitrant platforms to the negotiating table or risk being hit with penalties.
- Ronald Mizen
Murderer of health insurance boss becomes folk hero
Authorities have pleaded for help in finding the person who murdered Brian Thompson. But some seem more interested in rooting for the gunman.
- Hurubie Meko
US appeals court upholds TikTok law forcing its sale
The ruling now increases the possibility of an unprecedented ban in just six weeks on the social media app, used by 170 million Americans.
- David Shepardson and Mike Scarcella
- Opinion
- Letters to the Editor
End RBA scapegoating and come up with policy solutions
Readers’ letters on the Reserve Bank pile-on; supermarket “discounts”; a lost opportunity to protect the environment; support for the social media age ban; and rooftop solar.
- Opinion
- Letters to the Editor
Social media ban critics overlook mental suffering
Readers’ letters on what critics of the age limit fail to consider, the case for not tinkering with the RBA, why South Australia is still the nation’s renewables trailblazer, and a lesson from Greek mythology for crypto investors.
November
‘Black Friday sale on VPNs’: Social media ban faces early obstacles
Big tech has 12 months to comply with new laws that block children under 16 from accessing platforms, setting up Australia as a high-profile test case for the globe.
- Tess Bennett
Australia bans social media for under 16s. What do other countries do?
Australia has approved a social media ban for children aged under 16, one of the world’s toughest regulations targeting Big Tech.
- Reuters
Gen Z spends record six hours a day online
It’s official: young people are now spending more than a quarter of their lives staring at a screen – and women more so than men.
- Matthew Field
- Opinion
- Opinion
Australia’s social media ban is a joke
Media-manufactured moral panics come and go. That so many Labor and Coalition politicians have succumbed to this latest one, so unthinkingly, is frightening.
- John Roskam
- Analysis
- Explainers
Worried about the social media ban for kids? Read this
The pioneering age-limit laws are set to be approved by the Senate on Thursday. Here’s what we know (and just as importantly what we don’t know) about how they will work.
- Paul Smith
Social media ban: screen time fix, magic wand or a waste of time?
This week on The Fin podcast, Paul Smith and Sam Buckingham-Jones on what the ban means for children and parents, and whether it could cause a rift with the new US president.
- Opinion
- Opinion
Social media hurts youth mental health, rather than helps
Digital well-being will come from less rather than more reliance on online support.
- Danielle Einstein and Samantha Marsh
‘Out of order’ applies to all of ailing Victoria
Readers’ letters on the southern state’s economic malaise; the IPA’s infuence; Australia’s cricket defeat; fighting back against “battery boosters”; social media bans; retirement tips; and potential power blackouts.