Labor premiers and federal leaders are sure buying into some solid moral panic on social media and its impact on teens. I'm well on the record as no fan of Facebook, but when it comes to how to write policy we want evidence-based decisions. And one of the world's leading researchers on social media, who also happens to be based here in Australia, shares some choice words about last week's summit over at Crikey.
Axel Bruns
"It's not me, it's the algorithm!"
Executives say they can't stop the trends they're seeing on their platforms. Oh, really?
Does Meta's VR Turing Test ambition make sense?
Meta's VR Turing Test intrigues Seamus on the latest episode of the Byteside podcast, while Nic is puzzled by a pop-up Metaverse shop.
The Visual Turing Test: a unified VR vision for the future
Showing your working helps us all grasp what we're aiming for.
Of course you've been waiting for Facebook ads inside your VR, right?
Engagement vampire Facebook is ready to thrust floating ad units into your enraptured eyeballs inside the solitude of virtual reality.
One set of rules to rule them all
Twitter gives Australia the Blues, COVIDSafe doesn't give anything, plus Facebook, hot sauce, Hearthstone, Valorant and more.
Facebook might finally stop treating politicians as 'more equal than others'
After recent Oversight Board questions, Facebook might be about to stop letting politicans say whatever they like.
Bond meets Bezos
Amazon buys MGM, CommBank to show you ALL your accounts, USB wants more power, and Facebook still sucks. Plus Nokia, HyperX, Razer and more.
Enhance and augment
In the latest Byteside podcast we talk imaging technologies and interfaces, from Adobe's latest enhancement tech to AR and VR interfaces.
Facebook's temporary news ban still impacting Aussie media consumption
Australians' time spent on news websites dropped by as much as 22% during Facebook's news ban in February. It still hasn't recovered.
Bargaining Code amendments give Facebook all it wanted and then some
We handed Facebook fewer rules and no mandatory code while giving it an excuse to gain data on what a Facebook without news looks like.
WhatsApp users have until May 15 to comply to new changes
WhatsApp will be restricting messaging services and potentially deleting accounts of users who don't accept the new terms and conditions.
What's up? Millions flee WhatsApp amid updated terms
A poorly communicated update from secure messaging service WhatsApp sees millions abandon the service in favour of competitors.
Everyone looks ridiculous in the Australian media bargaining code fight
Big media, big tech, and big politics. Everyone is trying to look like the biggest tool in the name of winning a fight about the wrong thing.
US Govt speaks up on Australia's proposal to force Google and Facebook to pay up
Australia's developing media laws continue to get spicy, with US officials the latest detractors alongside Facebook and Google.
Facebook helps boost NYU research project monitoring its ads – by suing it
Facebook goes after an NYU research plugin designed to give greater transparency to political adverts.
Facebook continues Oculus woes, account deletion wipes purchases
When your delightful virtual reality headset conflicts with your desire to stop being trapped in the big bad social network.
Facebook-owned Oculus Quest 2 bans users for logging into Facebook
The requirement to create a Facebook login to use Oculus hardware meets its latest layer of stupid, with new accounts banned for... reasons?
The end of FarmVille
As Facebook gets set to shut down its support for Flash Player, the original addictive Zynga game has announced it's time to say goodbye.
Facebook only took most of a week to deal with its latest misinformation crisis
Facebook is finally removing false claims about Oregon wildfires, half a week after ridiculous claims spread on the social network.
