Tag: social media ban

Wronski’s News on Wednesday

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Tuesday 10 December revealed Australian politics at its finest: banning teenagers from social media while spending $368 billion on submarines the UK admits it can’t build, from a country that’s already moved on diplomatically. Welcome to the Kingdom of the Unfalsifiable, where policy exists beyond verification, protected by the impenetrable forcefield of good intentions. As Richard Denniss observed, only a fabulously rich country could commit such sums without troubling Treasury or Parliament. We’re not battlers – we’re loaded enough to operate entirely in the realm of political fan fiction.

Stand By Your Ban: A Post-Truth Reflection

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Welcome to Post-Truth Australia, where the lies have become so brazen they’ve stopped pretending to be anything else. The Coalition’s “Net Zero Heroes” want to dig up every tonne of coal in the country. Tasmania’s preparing a modern potlatch ceremony – ceremonially bankrupting itself with a stadium that’ll cost billions while the AFL chips in $15 million. And our Communications Minister stands firm on a social media ban that wouldn’t work in an iron lung. It’s mythomania at industrial scale, and as Hemingway knew: we go broke gradually, then suddenly.

PART TWO: THE SILICON LEASH

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Australia’s teen social media ban was sold as child protection. In reality, it crystallises platform power over basic infrastructure. Meta writes the rules. Snapchat implements ConnectID. Parliament ratifies what’s already been decided. This isn’t regulation—it’s regulatory capture dressed up as safety. And the pattern repeats everywhere: gig work, aged care, digital advertising. We’re becoming silicon serfs to a billionaire tech oligarchy that already runs too much of the world.