Goooood morning, hope your week is going well so far. We’re going to dive right into it today, starting with, of course, Elon Musk.
1. Aussies don’t like Twitter anymore
Digital intelligence platform Similarweb this morning slid into our emails to serve us up some data on Twitter, cum X. Data from the vendor shows that over the past year, Australian traffic to the Twitter.com website, the Twitter Android app, and the Twitter advertiser portal have all declined (shocking, we know). Specifically, Australian web traffic to twitter.com has fallen by 17.5 per cent (year on year) and Australian monthly active users on the platform’s Android app also fell 17 per cent (that’s more than 264,000 fewer Australian users in September this year compared to September last year.)
2. Vonage and Twilio breach anti-scam rules
Heading over to the ACMA now and the regulator has taken action against two telcos, Vonage Business Inc and Twilio Inc, who each allowed their customers to send SMS with text-based sender IDs (ie shortened business names), without making sufficient checks that they weren’t being used to perpetrate scams. The ACMA found Vonage allowed more than 11,780 non-compliant SMS to be sent, which included 3,387 scam texts impersonating businesses including Commonwealth Bank, ApplePay, and Australia Post and Twilio was found to have inadequate systems in place to comply with the rules. No fine has been issued, but they’ve both been formally directed to comply with the Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMS Code.
3. Innovation solved with new Parliamentary group
Great news, everyone, the problem with a lack of tech and innovation in Australia has been fixed, thanks to a new Parliamentary Friendship Group on Tech and Innovation. It is intended that this bi-partisan group will “promote engagement and understanding between industry, investors and Parliamentarians on tech, investment, and innovation topics”. While I joke because this is just lip-service, Tech Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder raised a good point, saying that widespread Parliamentary support would be crucial to create more tech jobs and take advantage of the opportunities of productivity-enhancing technologies like AI. There’s also a Parliamentary Friends of Brewing group…
4. ACCC tells NBN Co to go ahead with new pricing
The ACCC has agreed to a varied special access undertaking (SAU) from the company in charge of the National Broadband Network, drawing to a close a nearly three-year process. The SAU is a key part of the regulation of the NBN. As summarised by iTnews, the big changes are to NBN pricing – with connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) bandwidth charges ending for services of 100Mbps and above from December 1, and for all other services by mid-2026. NBN Co will also set 25/5Mbps as the entry-level broadband speed in what’s called the first regulatory cycle, which runs for the first three years of the agreement.
5. BYD reveals the Seal
Overnight, Chinese electric car maker BYD revealed the Seal, Australia’s newest electric sedan and a lower-cost rival to the Tesla Model 3. Available in three trims (priced between $49,888 and $68,798), the Seal joins the Dolphin and the Atto 3 among BYD’s Australian fleet of EVs. It’s expected to arrive in Australia between December and January 2024.
BONUS ITEM: Man, tech is cool.
We’ll see you wonderful people again same time tomorrow.
Image: BYD