Demonstrably false claims and misinformation have been prominently featured on X, including by Verified users, following the Bondi Junction attack, as the social media platform again fails to grapple with a major breaking news story. Twitter was once the go-to platform for real-time, breaking news stories, often led by journalists boasting verified blue ticks. But… Read more »
Social media firms are offering “a product that’s killing people” and their CEOs have “blood on their hands” for failing to protect children from online predators, a US senator has told five tech executives during vitriolic hearings in which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to apologise to angry families of victims of online child grooming.… Read more »
With Facebook now the social media version of a nursing home, a rival London-based startup cofounded by expat Australian Jack Symonds, has bagged $4 million in Seed round. The raise for Lounge, which is connecting the current generation of university students on in four countries, including Australia, was led by Square Peg with support from existing… Read more »
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Grant, has found X (formerly Twitter) guilty of serious non-compliance to a transparency notice on child sex abuse material. The commissioner has issued X with an infringement notice for A$610,500. The commissioner first issued transparency notices to Google, X (then Twitter), Twitch, TikTok and Discord in February under the Online Safety… Read more »
While owner Elon Musk denies X, his rebranded Twitter, is an even bigger cesspit of abuse, racism, and unfettered nastiness than it already was, perhaps one way to improve things is meditation, according to Kiwi academics. Researchers from University of Auckland (UaA) trawled through more than 60,000 Twitter posts by users who’d completed a two-month… Read more »
Being on social media has become synonymous with living in the 21st century. Year after year, we see new platforms and smarter algorithms roping us into highly addictive online worlds. Now, a growing number of people have noticed this trend and are actively making an effort to resist it. Anecdotally, a case can be made… Read more »
Amid management changes at Twitter, discontented users are exploring an alternative social media platform called Bluesky. According to media reports, downloads of the Bluesky app surged more than 600% in April. Initially conceived by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2019 as a complementary project aimed to improve Twitter user experience, Bluesky transitioned into a standalone… Read more »
Last week, Elon Musk finally had his long-awaited Thanos moment for legacy verification in a rapid scheduled disassembly. It was a busy day for the boss of Twitter and SpaceX when it comes to valuable lessons from watching billions of dollars of hard work explode. But if we’re to believe Musk (this time) after the… Read more »
When Elon Musk closed the deal to buy Twitter late last year, the company suddenly found itself facing a US$3 billion yearly deficit and was four months away from bankruptcy, the billionaire told the BBC in an interview last week. Why was Twitter in trouble? Because Musk bought it. “In rough numbers, in a normal… Read more »
Social media “finfluencer” Tyson Robert Scholz, known as “ASX Wolf” on social media, has been threatened with jail time if he attempts to charge for financial and share trading advice following a ban by the Federal Court. In December, Justice Kylie Downes found that Scholz had illegally run a financial service business between March 2020… Read more »
The Australia Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) is combing through social media platforms to identify influencers that don’t disclose affiliations with the product and company they’re promoting. Social media users reported more than 100 influencers to the regulator. Most tip-offs were about beauty, lifestyle, parenting, and fashion influencers who failed to follow the advertising disclosure… Read more »
An Australian social platform designed to help people with disabilities make friends and expand their social circle has launched in a bid to reduce loneliness. Alvie, founded by CEO Steve Bear, was born out of first-hand realisation of how difficult it can be for children with disabilities to find friends they can relate to. The… Read more »
Last week, Todd Sampson’s documentary Mirror Mirror: Love & Hate screened on Channel Ten. The documentary focuses on harms that occur through social media and online platforms. It raises important points about the need for awareness and regulation, but these are often crowded out by alarmist tropes that don’t reflect what we know from decades… Read more »
Social media are increasingly blurring the lines between our personal and professional lives, leaving us at risk of posting sensitive information that could have ramifications far beyond our “friends” list. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin recently found this out the hard way after a video of her dancing and drinking with friends, first posted to… Read more »
Social media platforms have had some bad press in recent times, largely prompted by the vast extent of their data collection. Now Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has upped the ante. Not content with following every move you make on its apps, Meta has reportedly devised a way to also know everything… Read more »
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Tassie carbon accounting startup banks $5.3 million Seed round 
Smart hotels get even smarter: 72 Byte to launch in Australia with AI expert backing 
Eucalyptus head of growth Matt Rossi departs to launch his own marketing startup, Oodle 
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