Apple managed to convince the European Commission that iMessage is not a gatekeeper and won't be regulated under the Digital Markets Act. This means it does not need to be made interoperable with other messaging services and Apple doesn't need to make changes to the service like Meta has to do with WhatsApp for example. Apple will still implement RCS into the Messages app on the iPhone and that's happening world-wide, not just in Europe. Meanwhile in the USA, the FCC is considering investigating if Apple violated "Part 14 rules" (a law regarding access to communications services for people with disabilities) in blocking Beeper Mini from operating and allowing iMessage on non-Apple devices. I hope they dig around and produce a report, that would be a fascinating read.
The federal government is hastily cooking up "anti-doxxing" laws as a response to the "names, images, professions and social media accounts" of 600 people in a pro-Israel WhatsApp group made public by pro-Palestine activists and anti-Zionists Jews. We don't know what the legislation will look like exactly, but the Prime Minister has "asked the Attorney-General to bring forward legislation in response to the Privacy Act review, including laws that deal with so-called doxxing, which is basically the malicious publication of private information online". The Chair of EFA said they are "wary about any attempts to criminalise doxxing" and that it is already "unlawful to use a carriage service to menace, harass, or cause offence", but "what we lack — as survivors of family violence and stalking know only too well — is law enforcement with the will to exercise the powers they already have".
There's a nice story about 404 Media on Neiman Lab and how the scrappy media startup is "profitable". It's a loose definition of profitable - they made back their US$1,000 "investment" and refused to disclose 404 Media's total revenue - but I'm glad they're on a positive track after 6 months. This is a great quote from Sam Cole, one of the co-founders, "owning our own work, and being beholden to no one but our readers and colleagues — as opposed to say, investors, venture capitalists, or out-of-touch executives — feels like the future". I really like 404 Media and what they're doing and wish more journalists would get together with their mates and do something similar. It'd be much more difficult in Australia with a smaller audience, but it would be cool to give it a crack anyways.
Intel polysilicon die collage. Most of the CPUs, SoCs and some Hubs from Intel, produced since 1992, resized in relative area to each other. (Ivan Musachev / Flickr)
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