*Professor Axel Bruns analyses all of your thoughts online. (Photo: Queensland University of Technology*)

With so much news about social media in Australia right now, I thought I’d wrap up the winter series by speaking with Professor Axel Bruns from the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology.

In this episode we discuss whether anything can replace what was Twitter, Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code and Meta refusing to pay for news content, age restrictions for social media, the arrest of Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov, and why filter bubbles really aren’t a thing.

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Episode Links

01. QUT - Academic profiles - Professor Axel Bruns

Prof. Axel Bruns is an Australian Laureate Fellow and Professor in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.
02. Australians support ban on under 16-year-olds accessing social media | Sky News Australia

[11 August 2024] A survey of more than 2,500 people conducted by News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign shows 70 per cent want the age limit on social media to be raised from 13 to at least 16. 85 per cent believe platforms like Meta should be held responsible for preventing harmful or misleading content from being shared. 96 per cent of respondents say social media companies need to do more to operate within Australia.
03. 04 June 2024 - essentialreport.com.au

Key Insights: Double the number of people (42%) see AI as more of a risk over those who see it as more of an opportunity (21%); 69% support increasing the age limit on social media platforms from 13 to 16 years old; 62% support making hate speech a criminal offence.
04. eSafety drops case against Elon Musk's X over church stabbing videos | ABC News - YouTube

[5 June 2024] A legal battle to have graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney removed from Elon Musk's social media platform X will be abandoned by the eSafety commissioner. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant confirmed the Federal Court case would be abandoned, after several blows in court and an attempt to temporarily force the footage to be hidden expiring.
05. X says ‘free speech has prevailed’ after eSafety commissioner drops case over Wakeley church attack posts | X | The Guardian

[5 June 2024] Regulator will now focus on tribunal case launched by Elon Musk’s social media platform which is seeking a review of decision to order removal of tweets.
06. Blue Murder (miniseries) - Wikipedia

Blue Murder is a two-part Australian television crime drama miniseries produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1995, and is based on true events.
07. Musk widens legal fight with Australia as Labor pushes social media probe

[9 May 2024] Musk’s company X, formerly known as Twitter, this week launched a case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal testing the merits of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s order to remove videos of the April stabbing of a Sydney priest.
08. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France due to alleged criminal activities on the app - YouTube

[27 August 2024] Telegram app CEO Pavel Durov is in custody after French authorities investigated alleged criminal activities on the messaging platform.
09. Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram Founder, Is Part of Broad Investigation in France - The New York Times

[26 August 2024] A case was opened last month to investigate child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activities on the platform. The app’s founder, Pavel Durov, was detained over the weekend near Paris.
10. X's initial shareholder list unveiled: Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Jack Dorsey, Bill Ackman have ties

[22 August 2024] In addition to Combs and Dorsey, the other nearly 100 X Holdings Corp. shareholders listed include: venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud; UnipolSai S.P.A., an Italian financial services company based in Bologna; and 8VC, a venture capital firm co-founded by Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of software company Palantir, according to an unsealed court document obtained by the Washington Post.
11. Telegram founder Pavel Durov banned from leaving France after initial charges laid - ABC News

[29 August 2024] The first preliminary charge against him was for ''complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organised group,'' a crime that can lead to sentences of up to 10 years in prison and 500,000 eu...

The 9pm War on Social Media with Professor Axel Bruns