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Daphne Berry, Molly Benjamin, Emma Edwards and Natasha Etschmann pose for an Instagram story before the lock-up.

Influencers in parliament? The outrage is as tired as it is sexist

The response to female influencers in Parliament House was extravagant and patronising. Confirmation that the political class still thinks young women shouldn’t worry their pretty little heads about money.

Yesterday

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

How personal messaging apps invaded our work life

The war plan leak saga says a lot about the irksome blurring of job and play on the chat software that have come to dominate so much of daily life.

March

Jamie’s parents in Adolescence are confronted with the knowledge that they could have done more to protect their son from harmful online rhetoric.

Boys are in crisis, but it’s adults who need educating

The real problem hit Netflix series Adolescence has raised is one that hand-wringing over toxic masculinity won’t solve.

Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said in a post on X.

Musk’s xAI buys social media platform X for $71.5b

In a post on X, Elon Musk said the futures of his artificial intelligence venture and X are “intertwined”.

The new Facebook feed is a sharp departure from the way social media has evolved over the past decade

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.

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Reddit made its Wall St debut last year, and its daily users have since surged over 100 million.

How Reddit became the nicest place on the internet

Once an outpost of revenge porn and racism, the 20-year-old site’s daily usership has surged as its humanity stands out from the AI-driven competition.

Mark Zuckerberg

I thought there was nothing new to learn about Facebook’s moral bankruptcy. I was wrong

A controversial new book about Facebook serves as a window into our current moment, a field guide to tech autocracy.

‘Cool, not cool’: Inside the first budget with influencers

Labor carefully selected content creators and podcasters for the budget lockup. Here’s how it went – and what it means for the election campaign.

Money, money, money podcaster Glen James.

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.

Added to the wrong group chat? Happened to me too

It’s not the same as being texted secret American war plans, but I have been mistaken for an M&A counter-party twice in the past two years.

Donald Trump’s deep cuts to the US public service have created a Reddit boom.

Forget Truth Social, Trump is making people flock to Reddit

The erstwhile ‘front page of the internet’ has, at 20 years old, regained relevance as public servants threatened with the sack use it to share information.

Stephanie Zambrana, who posted a TikTok urging people to wear whatever they like and not to be swayed by algorithmic influence.

Millennials and Gen Z are fighting again – this time about gym clothes

There are two camps: People who like wearing tight-on-tight outfits to the gym and those who prefer baggier ensembles.

Billionaire businessman Andrew Forrest has spent years battling Meta over scam Facebook ads.

Court tells Meta to unlock scam data in win for Twiggy on crypto ads

The mining billionaire’s US case against Meta has revealed more than 230,000 social media ads using his likeness were published encouraging Australians to invest in fake cryptocurrency schemes.

Mark Zuckerberg with Joel Kaplan, Facebook's public policy head in charge of lobbying US politicians and the most prominent Republican in the company.

The Republican lobbyist who became Zuckerberg’s most trusted adviser

Meta’s newly promoted head of global affairs has masterminded the social media giant’s pivot towards Donald Trump.

Zuckerberg ‘lied’ to Senate, Sandberg asked me to bed, says author

A former Facebook executive has written an insider account of a company that she says was run by status-hungry and self-absorbed leaders.

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Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, was not consulted.

‘Irrational and indefensible’ YouTube call was government’s alone

The Albanese government announced YouTube would be exempt from its social media ban without seeking mandatory advice from its eSafety Commissioner.

Elon Musk’s X is the target of a cyberattack, he said.

Musk says X target of ‘a massive cyberattack’

The billionaire said the platform was tracing the breach to determine if “a large, co-ordinated group and/or a country is involved”.

Elon Musk’s internet: So based, much wow. So cringe?

Musk uses online slang to marshal his 200 million social media followers in support of his efforts to gut the federal government. But he might be reaching his limits.

Staff at the National Situation Room viewing a map ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit for an update on Cyclone Alfred, in Canberra

Facebook promises cyclone updates, apologises for ‘technical issue’

Social media giant Meta blamed a glitch for preventing Australians from finding the latest information on Cyclone Alfred.

Anthony Albanese hammers big tech with barrage of new laws

Big tech slams ‘sweetheart deal’ for YouTube in social ban

The tech giants say carving out YouTube from a ban on social media for people under 16 would be like banning soft drinks for children but allowing Coca-Cola.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/social-media-621