"Failure to tax extreme wealth will fuel far-right surge, warns Gary Stevenson"
thepoint.com.au/news/260227-...
26.02.2026 23:20
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"Failure to tax extreme wealth will fuel far-right surge, warns Gary Stevenson"
thepoint.com.au/news/260227-...
This guy gets it.
Hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software, Persona. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet, and that was just the beginning.
www.therage.co/persona-age-...
a figure displaying survey respondents and their placement in low, medium, high, or very high risk environments. Benchmark figures are between 54 and 62% low, and 11-12% very high. The census in question has a low risk placement of 18%, and a very high risk placement of 44%.
Well to the surprise of absolutely NOBODY, the Australian University Census on Staff Wellbeing found that the sector is (to put it mildly) a bit fucked when it comes to psychosocial safety climate, with 44% of respondents in a very high risk environment. #AcademicSky
how long did it take you to notice?
You know I'm dead if I suddenly start posting on Facebook more than like once every two years. mashable.com/article/meta...
Latest article from me in The Conversation this morning.
I discuss a new Nature study that finds X's algorithmic feed is politically biased (surprise, surprise!). I explore the idea of social media platforms as faulty infrastructure in need of a fix.
theconversation.com/a-few-weeks-...
“Abolishing gender programs & the lessons they have taught, will, Trump & his acolytes hope, undermine our ability not just to condemn, but also to critically analyze the policies & practices they want to impose.”
Must Read by Joan Scott, member of the AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom.
A must read piece on the increasing misuse, watering down and co-opting of Cultural Safety - a First Nations designed health framework. overland.org.au/2026/02/on-t...
"Many people rely on anonymity to speak freely. LGBTQ+ youth, survivors of abuse, political dissidents, and countless others use aliases to explore identity, find support, and build community safely. When identity checks become a condition of participation, many users will simply opt out."
One thing that’s cool about our current system is how it creates things that people don’t want or need, and also those things are bad for us.
Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
Looking for alternatives to Gmail and G-Drive?
Two years ago I switched to #Posteo for emails and to @nextcloud.bsky.social for personal online storage (via #Hetzner).
It costs me the equivalent of a good flat white per month & gives me peace of mind that my personal data isn't scraped or abused.
Really good article by @bronicee.bsky.social on the world's largest data centre to be built in Sydney and its environmental impact. Spoiler: it's massive! But at least we'll have funny videos of dogs dancing while we burn... 😌
stories.theconversation.com/can-australi...
@aunz.theconversation.com
😢
“Four of my children just evaporated,” Badran said, holding back tears. “I looked for them a million times. Not a piece was left. Where did they go?”
There are no words to adequately describe the evil here.
This is why you're better off getting your news from TikTok. It's not ideal, but better than PR-coded journalism in which politicians solely focus on defending their horrible decisions. Check the footage.
EFF is against age verification mandates, including Discord's new policy requiring face scans or IDs for full access to the platform. Here are some things to consider if you're planning to continue using Discord next month. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
I don't have much to add that other folks haven't said, but as a historian of the queer internet, this doesn't surprise me at all. LGBTQ users are convenient corporate props...until they're not worth protecting.
State MLC questions if repressive protest laws are making community safer Stephen Lawrence – a NSW MLC and barrister – says he’s also concerned about the fact that civil liability has been “extinguished” under the Major Events Act Declaration. Known as the public assembly restriction declaration, it gives police the full suite of their move-on powers under the Summary Offences Act for offences such as obstructing traffic. Lawrence told RN Breakfast in practice, the events of Monday night should be “food for thought” for politicians. Anyone that was the victim of a civil wrong, so negligence or any sort of other tortious act from the police last night won’t be able to sue the state. That’s a consequence of the Major Events Act Declaration. But look, this is another event that will be food for thought, I’m sure, for politicians in terms of do you fundamentally achieve public safety by trying to repress protests, by trying to prevent street processions, by creating a legal regime where there’s no independent arbiter or are in fact those things potentially quite dangerous to community safety?
"[D]o you fundamentally achieve public safety by trying to repress protests, by trying to prevent street processions, by creating a legal regime where there’s no independent arbiter or are in fact those things potentially quite dangerous to community safety?"
Good questions. #auslaw #nswpol
Oh man i just realized all of those discord channels that replaced entire websites, forums, and wikis are going to just vanish and internet archive can't archive them
I very genuinely do not think that Australia's media industry can be classified as any other than fully supportive of police violence, because you have to actively, consciously and knowingly work to frame what happened as general "violence mars protests" rather than "police violently attack protest"
So regardless of intentions, @australianlabor.bsky.social and state govs are normalising undemocratic powers that may deepen division rather than resolve it. Democracies are strongest not when they suppress conflict, but when they allow it to be argued, contested, and worked through in the open.
Powerful, incisive, and informed writing here (i.e. something you won't find in the legacy media cited here)
Proud to be a signatory.
This open letter is in SMH and Age.
Let's be real, we cannot abolish ICE under this administration. But we can start the process by taking away the tools they’re using to surveil and target our communities. Push to defund them until abolishment is possible. www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/no-f...
ID checking for online services has been the dogwhistle for internet censorship for longer THAN I HAVE BEEN ALIVE
PhD scholarship applications are open for a project investigating how public opinion is formed in online spaces, with a focus on the deliberative quality of discussions, social influence dynamics, and platform affordances and governance across major digital platforms.
www.qut.edu.au/study/fees-a...
Oxford University Press has lifted the paywall on the entire 40 year archive of @healthpromint.bsky.social as part of our flip to fully open access!
Check out the amazing work of our authors - free to read - here:
academic.oup.com/heapro
