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Hello and welcome to Screenshot, your weekly tech update from national technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre, featuring the best, worst and strangest in tech and online news. Read to the end for Norman.
eSafety v X is just getting started
What, did you think it was over? Sit down. We’re not even half way.
Most of the country has bought cheap tickets to the hotly-anticipated action blockbuster, eSafety v Elon Musk, filmed on location, in a tropical paradise known as the Australian Federal Court.
And what a film! There’s an A-list cast, a budget that would make Spielberg blush, and it’s been in production for almost as long as Dune.
Going off the tone of yesterday’s media coverage after the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant announced she would withdraw her claim against X, you could be forgiven for thinking we were in the final minutes of the movie.
X and its billionaire owner Elon Musk even made victory speeches declaring that they had “prevailed” in a fight for free speech.
But don’t be fooled by the swelling orchestral score. There are no winners — at least not yet.
It might have seemed like spin when Inman Grant characterised her decision as a tactical retreat, except that she’s currently in five other legal battles with the company.
“I will say that we have a very full dance card with X Corp,” she told Senate Estimates last week.
Admittedly X initiated most of those legal actions, to challenge eSafety’s enforcement efforts.
While the Online Safety Act gives the commissioner significant power to fine companies, companies also have significant rights to challenge them, delaying outcomes by years and effectively suing their way out the problem.
“They are using a bunch of different tools to make themselves more opaque,” said Inman Grant.
Crucially however, one of those ongoing court cases is a parallel fight in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over the exact same matter that was being fought in the Federal Court.
So in a very literal sense the fight is not over, and more broadly, it’s only just begun.
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Who has the power?
Because in spite of the title, the film you’re watching isn’t actually about the Wakeley church stabbing attacks in April — it’s about how much power the government ultimately hands the commissioner once it’s finished reviewing the Online Safety Act in October.
The case against X was seen as a test of the law as it stands, and eSafety’s decision to withdraw its case was naturally characterised as failure in that test.
But what better time for powers to fail than at the exact moment their adequacy is in question?
“I’m sure if the law doesn’t cover [the Wakeley footage] at the moment, the community would want a law that prohibits that sort of thing,” the former ACCC Commissioner Allan Fels told AM this morning.
“Sometimes it’s a good idea to test the limits of the law and that can trigger further action if that test fails,” he said.
Regulatory expert Dr Rob Nichols went a step further on ABC Radio Melbourne’s Drive yesterday, when he said “it’s only by finding out what a judge thinks about the law … that we now know, well, the law isn’t good enough.”
In May, the government made what may turn out to be a down payment, updating one corner of the Online Safety Act, known as the Basic Online Safety Expectations, or BOSE.
Among other things, the change means tech companies must now consider “the best interests of the child” in the design and operation of their products.
“There are so many things that need to be done to strengthen the act, frankly,” Inman Grant told Senate estimates last week, and all signs indicate the government is willing to take its cues from the toughest regulation in the world.
“That’s something that is being very closely looked at: How can we take the best elements of the Online Safety Act in the UK, or the Digital Safety Act [in the EU], I anticipate that’s how things will be enhanced.”
So if you’re enjoying this film, keep an eye out for sequels. X won’t be eSafety’s last opponent, and the screenwriters are hard at work.
A massive data breach in court
Speaking of courtroom dramas, the Australian Information Commissioner has this week filed proceedings against Medibank over a 2022 cyber attack which affected 9.7 million Australians.
We’re told the case could lead to fines amounting to the mind-melting sum of $21 trillion.
Even if it does, we’ll all probably have visibly aged by the time any money changes hands.
Never forget, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is still fighting Meta in the Federal Court over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which it brings me no joy to say took place while Zendaya was still at high school.
AI employees warn of dangers, call for whistleblower protections
In news which literally no-one will enjoy, 13 AI staffers at top labs, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have signed an open letter asking for whistleblower protections.
Their rationale, cited at the bottom of the document, is a decent primer on the case for existential risk, if you’re feeling game.
Not sure how far they’ll get in light of the NDAs OpenAI has been pushing, but hey, they had to try.
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Why a pro-Russian influence campaign sent its own fakes straight to ABC fact checkers
To misquote Kath Day-Knight, it’s different, it’s unusual, but innovation in foreign influence operations is not what you would call “nice”.
According to international researchers, Australian news outlets including the ABC have been targeted by a sophisticated new pro-Russian influence campaign, designed to sway public opinion about the war in Ukraine.
The novel part is that they targeted journalists directly, instead of trying to push fake news onto the general public, as has always been tradition.
For what it’s worth, none of the Australian organisations targeted appeared to have been taken in, but 250 others elsewhere in the world were.
And if it’s all too much…
Then meet Norman: a “remarkably unimportant” individual, collectively authored by a community of 75K Redditors, who I can only imagine took it up as a hobby after reading too much stressful tech news.
You can securely send tips, stressful or otherwise, securely me me via Proton Mail.
