I know the stories, and have had prior experiences, but my god @deutschebahn.com are truly hopeless. For the entire month I've not ridden a train that has gone on time, and multiple have just never shown up or just randomly cancelled stations mid-route. I love you Germany, please sort this out.

The UCI’s decision to allow an Israeli team ride the Vuelta was beyond inconsistent. They’ve banned other teams and athletes over political issues before, but suddenly it was "sport is neutral"?! That’s not neutrality, that's hypocrisy. www.cyclingnews.com/news/i-dont-...

Congratulations to PhD student Caroline Gardam (@cazuarina.bsky.social), Dr Michelle Riedlinger (@riedlinm.bsky.social), Dr Daniel Angus (@antmandan.bsky.social), and DMRC alum Jane Tan for their new paper on the multimodal narratives of climate denial.

The ANU Bell affair shows how a “born-to-rule” mindset warps university governance. This ABC opinion piece asks the bigger questions we all should be asking inside and outside the sector. abc.net.au/religion/anu...

I'm in Cologne for work. We had Warntag today, which is an annual test of the alert systems. For me, a non-German speaker who had no pre-warning of this, it was extremely normal to have my phone just start blaring an alert tone and show up an alert message while air raid sirens started going off.

New ADM+S submission: Research ahead of the 2025 Federal Election reveals astroturfing is mainstream in climate & energy debates. Calls for stronger laws, transparency & platform accountability to protect democracy. Read more bit.ly/41MbRYn #PoliticalAdvertising #Astroturfing #DigitalTransparency

I saw this great interview about Bluesky by my good colleague @dhutchman.bsky.social here on Bluesky, so I'm boosting it on Bluesky.

Great to be here at @gesis.org at the same time as my wonderful Canadian colleagues @philipmai.com & @gruzd.ca. The @qutdmrc.bsky.social is the Australian partner of the polidashboard.org an initiative of their @socialmedialab.ca. A wonderful tool for enhancing transparency of political advertising.

Our partner lead @antmandan.bsky.social is a currently in Germany as a visiting fellow at @gesis.org. His talk is on Sep 10 to the institute is on Tracking online ads through citizen-engaged, privacy-preserving methods. Check out more info here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Voice technologies are being rapidly integrated into AI systems, raising new questions & intensifying old ones, across everyday life. This paper surveys the history & current developments, highlighting emerging responses in real-world settings. apo.org.au/node/331920 #AI #VoiceTech #Authenticity

Bob Katter may enjoy cult-like meme status as a quirky political oddity, but it's clear that beneath the cowboy hat is a mean bully whose behaviour should never be excused as harmless eccentricity. His violent outburst today was an utter disgrace and he should be censured for it in parliament.

Look what they did to Notepad. Shut the fuck up. This is Notepad. You are not welcome here. Oh yeah "Let me use Copilot for Notepad". "I'm going to sign into my account for Notepad". What the fuck are you talking about. It's Notepad.

So @albomp.bsky.social reckons we can't "do policy on the run" when it comes to gambling ads, after years of reviews, inquiries, and expert consensus begging for action. But somehow it's fine to rush through contested laws that reshape the entire internet in under 6 months. The hypocrisy is wild.

From Darkness to Hypervisibility! A one day symposium on the promotional and creator cultures of social media at UQ in November. CFP and details here: hass.uq.edu.au/event/sessio... @bradyjay.bsky.social @antmandan.bsky.social

Ah yes, Europe, the land of stringent regulation… except when it comes to every other idiot ruining the vibe by chain-smoking through every meal or nice moment. To the hipsters who think it's an aesthetic: you don't look chic, you just smell like regret and tar.

Absolutely lucked out on my academic visit to Amsterdam this week by timing it with a once every 5 year mass sailing event. These tall ships are absolutely gorgeous, and there are about 60 of them that all sailed in together today.

An important opinion piece from PhD candidate, Daniel Whelan-Shamy, on the policy submission to the New Zealand Education and Workforce Committee that the DMRC recently contributed to. Well done, Dan!

Being in the UK this week means I've seen several variations of Lower Wafflington AFC vs Bishop's Piddle United on the pub TVs. It's baffling, because apparently there are 147 other cups, shields, plates, and vases happening at the same time, all in overlapping leagues that somehow share teams.

Age verification? I tore the edges off printer paper.

“The more governments try to restrict social media use, the more young people will find ways to get around it” by @leopuglisi6.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Say carbon credits again. I dare you. I double dare you.

In all the fluster over YouTube now being included in the social media age ban, we seem to have forgotten the main proponents of this whole crusade: the traditional broadcast media, loudly cheering as kids are nudged back to their ads, outdated formats and questionable content.

"Senator WONG: As part of the global F-35 supply chain, we contribute components and parts that are non-lethal in nature. (Time expired)" Not sure how you get to such a place in life.

The Australian Government has now backflipped on its own plan and will include YouTube in its proposed social media age restrictions. Honestly, I'm just exhausted.

I enjoyed teaming up w @antmandan.bsky.social on Radio National's Life Matters today to discuss the increase in age-gating in Australia with both the social media ban for under16s & phase 2 industry codes beginning in December. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr... #socialmedia #ageverification #auspol

The introduction of age-verification in the UK this weekend appears to be an unmitigated disaster. Anyone accessing socials now has to upload ID, scan their face or otherwise verify. The outrage is widespread and everyone is just finding workarounds. The government has gone into defense.

new writing from me about age verification and content moderation beyond social media. with endless thanks to @kgt.bsky.social @drwaus.bsky.social @katha.bsky.social @antmandan.bsky.social Zahra Stardust @lucinda-nelson.bsky.social whose research and advocacy continue to inform my thinking

On hold to my IT helpdesk as my Microsoft authenticator app is asking me to open my Microsoft authenticator app to authenticate my Microsoft authenticator app. Most excellent use of my limited time.

Do you know someone looking for a great PhD opportunity with a great academic supervisor? PhD scholarship to “reimagine AI answer systems for critical AI literacy in Australia” hblog.org/2025/06/18/p...

The Albanese govt is seemingly backing a plan that could withhold uni and arts funding if they're seen to not tackle antisemitism. But what counts as "failure"? This sets a dangerous precedent, threatening academic independence, and informed and open debate. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

A new piece in The Conversation from DMRC director @antmandan.bsky.social, DMRC alum, T.J. Thomson and UNSW colleague Samuel Cornell. In this piece, they discuss the legislative change requiring certain visitors to the United States to provide their social media accounts. theconversation.com/...

The podcast studios of Australia as the Erin Patterson jury indicates they’ve reached a verdict.

More chaos on the Brisbane busways this morning with many services being diverted away from Mater Hill and Southbank. Major confusion when I got to Woolloongabba, the TransLink app doesn't reflect these service changes. The new bus route rollout continues to go from bad to worse for this LNP council

"'Economy of Genocide': UN Expert Accuses Major Corporations of Profiting Off of Israel's Assault on Gaza" Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, releases report accusing more than 45 entities of making money from Israel's Gaza genocide and illegal occupation of the West Bank:

"An education is not something that can just be “delivered”, like a pizza. It is the product of complex and contingent relationships between the student, the teacher, the medium of instruction, the institution, an evolving body of knowledge, and the society." www.afr.com/policy/healt...

"In that sense, the decision was made to appease pro-Israel lobbyists who would inevitably escalate the complaints about the ABC." www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Confusion over whether YouTube is included in the govt's social media age ban misses a deeper issue: the law targets logged-in access. As @tamaleaver.bsky.social points out, kids will still access YouTube and other platforms, just as logged-out, 'anonymous' users. theconversation.com/esafety-boss...

YouTube (and Google) are hitting back at the eSafety Commissioner's call to include the video platform in the teen social media ban: "Today’s position from the eSafety Commissioner represents inconsistent and contradictory advice"

The Coalition's response to the YouTube exemption backflip is to not take a position it seems.

Just thinking about all the incredibly harmful nature docos, music clips, and instructional videos my kids have accessed over the years. It's worth also noting that the official streaming service of the Australian Parliament is hosted on YouTube.

Absolutely pathetic. @australianlabor.bsky.social just rubber-stamps every violent whim of a decaying empire. Backing US airstrikes like obedient lapdogs. No debate. No soul. Just spineless war-mongering dressed up as “strategy.” We deserve so much better. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Instead of actually protecting Murujuga from Woodside’s acid gas emissions @australianlabor.bsky.social lobbies UNESCO to change their findings. Oh… and chose not to even consider the 4 BILLION tonnes + of greenhouse gas emissions. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Hey #ica25 I know I've plugged this pretty hard all conference, but it would really help us if you could fill in this brief questionnaire which will inform the prioritisation of the platforms, data types, collection mechanisms, etc. that we are going to develop in the @internetobservatory.org.au

An astronomical theme is emerging for this great #ica25 session as I'm also looking forward to presenting one of the new tools from our own @internetobservatory.org.au. Please come and join us this afternoon as we chart the constellations of public communication 🔭🌠. Note this is in the GRAND Hyatt

Yep, cops doing what they always tend to do which is to bring dumb violence to a non-violent situation. The actions of Denver PD endangered hundreds of people tonight, as a visitor I am absolutely disgusted with this city and it's heavy handed response to the beautiful people here. @denverpost.com

@cfiesler.bsky.social is giving us such a wonderful tour of the duality of the Internet. Some great lessons for how we as a research community need to deeply consider the ethics and relationality in our work. For whom are we doing this, and how does this make things better? #ica25

Lots of cool things in this #ica25 panel, including my two tool demos of #rstats {traktok} (for getting TikTok data) and {paperboy} (for getting news data)!

Hey #ica25, introducing The Mobile Observation of Advertising Toolkit, a new app for capturing ads in the wild from Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, & YouTube. @icacm.bsky.social Data Collection Tools & Datasets Sunday 15th | 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM | Colorado B (Grand 2) @internetobservatory.org.au

Standing room only at @zeningduan.bsky.social and @alvinyxz.bsky.social 's @icacm.bsky.social panel on LLMs #ica25

Why would you do a data donation study: Dan Angus says getting to a music festival for work is one reason 😅 #ica25