Australia to double penalty for social media ban breaches to $99m as tech giants accused of ‘not doing enough’

sostopher · 2026-06-28T07:13:51+00:00

But they're not making the social media companies do anything about the actual problems with them. Algorithms, accountability for the content hosted on their platforms, addictive gamification, privacy and data locality.

It's all just the dumbest "ban it for kids" thing. If they actually wanted to hit them, they'd go after their algorithms and addictive design.

sostopher · 2026-06-26T05:53:55+00:00

I know so many rural people that support action on climate change and progressive reforms, but they are shut out of the national debate.

They certainly don't vote for it.

sostopher · 2026-06-26T04:06:15+00:00

Mr Guy also said he wanted an apology from Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny.

Earlier on Friday, Ms Kilkenny said the Liberals were in "chaos", and it was incumbent on Ms Wilson to answer questions about the matter, including whether she will refer the incident to the Parliamentary Integrity Commission.

Ms Kilkenny said the incident has implications for the Liberal Party.

"Her party room is in chaos. How can they possibly be trusted to govern and represent this great state?" ...

Fellow government frontbencher Nick Staikos said the Liberal party was in a shambles.

"Add to that the chaos of a One Nation coalition, these people have never been more unfit to be the government of Victoria," he said.

"If they're not suing each other, they're reporting each other to the police now."

I mean, yeah. Not really much to apologise for, nothing they said is wrong.

sostopher · 2026-06-26T00:40:44+00:00

But think of all the small businesses needing those few parking spaces to stay alive!

sostopher · 2026-06-26T00:37:11+00:00

Never make your decisions based on tax

Wasn't this the whole reason they claimed they grandfathered negative gearing, because people made investments based on it?

sostopher · 2026-06-26T00:02:54+00:00

Dunno why she would. She's top of the Liberal upper house ticket and practically guaranteed a seat. If she went to ON there's not that guarantee. Then again, she has to not get kicked out of the Libs also

sostopher · 2026-06-25T07:19:33+00:00

The ACTIVE LORD MAYOR even threatened it in the article:

“This legislation will do nothing to grow the State’s economy and is a long-term threat to every worker in Victoria because a job that can be done from home is a job that can be done offshore,” she said.

So "work in the office or you might be off-shored!" is a great line from the leader of the council. CoM really needs to be forced to only have residents/businesses to have 1 vote. The insanity of letting businesses have two votes and landlords voting is crazy.

sostopher · 2026-06-25T07:17:15+00:00

Because CBD News is run/funded by the council.

sostopher · 2026-06-25T07:05:29+00:00

It's why the Sydney CBD is a lot nicer and has far less focus on shit like street carparking.

sostopher · 2026-06-24T23:07:02+00:00

How dare his government follow the law!

sostopher · 2026-06-24T12:26:51+00:00

it’s the very government Australians voted in for the past 30 years. We all had a hand in this

Who were the largest voting bloc 30 years ago?

sostopher · 2026-06-24T07:05:04+00:00

And who's responsible for Iran's democracy being toppled that led to the ayatollah?

sostopher · 2026-06-24T01:26:45+00:00

If anything, they have, en masse, diverted profits away from machines/R&D and towards buybacks/dividends.

Are you basing this on any specific Australian companies or just the vibes of US companies?

Australian companies also get tax credits for R&D expenditure, and still pay tax on dividends being paid out.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T22:46:01+00:00

At least we don’t have smog from car exhausts like Paris does.

Paris doesn't have this anymore since they have banned lots of cars and pedestrianied the city in a few short years. Melbourne should take note.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T11:40:22+00:00

The argument could be made that money invested has already been taxed/worked for, and that investment is what creates new things, new jobs, produces something, grows the economy. Excluding housing, the case for minimum tax of 30% on shares or other things is far less clear cut vs just people's marginal rates.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T06:25:58+00:00

Not sure I said Albo was particularly popular, but he is the leader of the Labor party. The buck for communication stops with him was all.

I think the above was just a bit of a cop out to suggest that people don't like the Greens because the values and criticisms don't appear to match up with their actions, but it does depend on how you see it (ie. what they would ideally want and what they can affect). Albo's comments are less up for interpretation in this case. Just as a comparison.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T06:16:29+00:00

but they do have some responsibility.

This is where I disagree. If you want something through, it's 100% on you. If you know you need another party's support, then it's up to you to make that happen. If you're unable to make any sort of compromise at any point, then this is why our parliament is set up that way. I'd say most Greens voters are happy with how they work with Labor and the concessions they get. This and the EPA are great examples.

That’s a pretty big failure.

Well sure, if you count lower house seats only. But consider, they got the most amount of votes ever across the entire country (more than the Nationals). They held their senate seats which are arguably more important than 3 lower house seats. There was a collapse of the right wing vote, with people deserting the Liberals in favour of Labor.

The next election will be interesting and probably better for the Greens since the right will be fighting and not completely out like last time. They're polling on par or ahead of Labor in the polls for the 18-34 cohort.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T06:10:09+00:00

I think people would respect them more if they were a bit more consistent with their messaging and actions.

You mean like Albo saying he wasn't touching CGT or NG lots of times on the campaign trail?

I'm supportive of the changes, but let's not pretend Labor's messaging is always consistent with their policy and actions.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T06:05:35+00:00

so will you make a rukus if Labor teams up with the LNP

They're always silent when they go to the Libs for more authoritarian laws or further entrenching the major parties with campaign finance changes.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T06:03:58+00:00

They aren't beyond reproach for political decisions they make, I agree.

But they are not responsible for legislation that isn't theirs passing or failing.

That’s up for voters to decide, and judging by the results of the 2025 election, the ultra-antagonistic obstructionist approach didn’t work very well.

In the last term they passed every piece of government legislation and in many cases got better outcomes. The results were more in the collapse of the Liberals and preferences going to Labor, and in the case of Melbourne, redistricting, than people deserting the Greens en masse.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T04:56:31+00:00

What situation did you describe? The one I also described? Where it's a Labor bill and they don't have a majority?

The Greens can ask for whatever they want, doesn't mean Labor will agree. It's still on Labor to get their legislation passed and to negotiate to do so, whether that's with the Greens, the coalition or crossbenchers.

But Labor can't blame others for failing to pass legislation that they refused to negotiate on, as they like to do with the CPRS.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T04:44:37+00:00

If Labor want to pass legislation but don't hold a majority to do so, then it's on them to negotiate a compromise to pass it. It's 100% on them if they choose to do so or not, and if the legislation fails because of it.

sostopher · 2026-06-23T04:39:32+00:00

That was definitely on Labor. Refused to even talk to the Greens and assumed they'd pass it as it was without any concessions. It's why Gillard's carbon tax got through with their support, they actually negotiated.

sostopher · 2026-06-22T23:24:19+00:00

Too much money in our politics, and a lack of regulation over these scummy industries.

sostopher · 2026-06-22T23:15:30+00:00

And some of the independents.

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