Australian Government backs 16 as the minimum age to use social media | Major Ukrainian university bans Telegram | Facebook asks US court to dismiss fraud suit

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• Children and teenagers under the age of 16 could soon be banned from using social media after Labor announced it would back the higher cut-off limit. ABC News

• Ukraine’s largest university has banned the use of Telegram for official communications, marking a new effort to limit reliance on the Russian-founded messaging app, which Ukrainian authorities consider a national security threat. The Record by Recorded Future

• The US supreme court grappled on Wednesday with a bid by Meta’s Facebook to scuttle a federal securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders who accused the social media platform of misleading them about the misuse of user data. The Guardian

Australia

Labor backs 16 as the minimum age to use social media ahead of national cabinet meeting
ABC News
Maani Truu
Children and teenagers under the age of 16 could soon be banned from using social media after Labor announced it would back the higher cut-off limit. The government had previously committed to introducing the legislation that would get kids off social media by the end of the year, but earlier suggested it would not announce a specific cut-off age until after a trial of verification technology.

• The government plans to ban under-16s from social media platforms. Here's what we know so far
  ABC News
  Maani Truu & Ange Lavoipierre
  The federal government has taken a big step towards realising its ambitious plan to get children and young teenagers off social media. But that doesn't mean 15-year-olds will be kicked off TikTok next week and there are still many outstanding questions about how it will all work. Here's what we know about the changes so far.

• Australia moves to ban young teens from social media
  The New York Times
  Eve Sampson
  Australia wants to ban children from social media. Far-reaching legislation announced on Thursday would make the platforms that are the lifeblood of many teenagers — among them TikTok — off limits to anyone under 16.

Why the Australian Ambassador deleted tweets critical of Trump
The New York Times
Victoria Kim
The envoy, Kevin Rudd, said that he had removed the posts “out of respect for the office of the president.” But it was a sign of broader anxiety over Donald J. Trump’s return to power.

ATO top tech role booted down a rung
The Mandarin
Julian Bajkowski
The Australian Taxation Office’s top technology role has officially been downgraded from second commissioner to a straight Australian Public Service Band 3 Senior Executive Service role. The role of Tax CIO is regarded as one of the toughest and most technically gruelling technology roles in the SES because the ATO’s operations are among the government’s most revenue mechanisms and its politically sensitive functions touch much broader demographics than Centrelink or Medicare, including small business.

China

China-linked hackers tasked with Japanese targets pursue them through Europe
The Record by Recorded Future
Alexander Martin
MirrorFace, a hacking group that researchers believe is aligned with China, has been spotted targeting a diplomatic organisation in the European Union for the first time. The Slovak cybersecurity company ESET described the incident on Thursday in its latest quarterly report, noting the move marks an expansion in the threat group’s range of targets which have historically been restricted to entities in Japan.

Alibaba Cloud notches big with ‘China’s Instagram’ completing largest data migration
South China Morning Post
Ben Jiang
Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing arm is now home to 500,000 terabytes worth of data from Chinese lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu after what the companies called the largest data migration ever, a case that could enhance the leading position of one of the country’s largest tech firms in the domestic cloud market.

USA

What Trump 2.0 means for tech at home and abroad
Nikkei Asia
Yifan Yu
The campaign revealed deep divides in Silicon Valley, with a number of tech leaders throwing their weight behind one of the two candidates. Now that Trump is elected, what will his policy priorities be and what do they mean for tech companies in the U.S. and abroad?

• What Donald Trump's win will mean for Big Tech
  WIRED
  Lauren Goode, Paresh Dave & Will Knight
  Trump has shown disdain for Big Tech companies, and he’s been vocal about pursuing policies that increase the cost of doing business for Big Tech and subject them to more unfavorable regulations. Ahead of the election, business leaders and venture capitalists expressed concern that an unpredictable administration would undermine the stability of their businesses.

• What does Trump’s election mean for EVs, Tesla, and Elon Musk?
  The Verge
  Andrew J. Hawkins
  On the campaign trail, Donald Trump said a lot of things about electric vehicles. He said he would “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” that EVs “don’t work,” and that they benefit China and Mexico while hurting American autoworkers. But he has also closely aligned himself with Elon Musk, who runs the biggest EV company in the US.

How Russia openly escalated its election interference efforts
The New York Times
Steven Lee Myers & Julian E. Barnes
The Kremlin’s information warriors not only produced a late wave of fabricated videos that targeted the electoral process and the Democratic presidential ticket but also no longer bothered to hide their role in producing them.

Disappointment looks different this time around
The New York Times
Madison Malone Kircher
Social media algorithms can place users in small bubbles of online content, making what one person sees on their feed vastly different from what another person sees. But some who remember the anti-Trump protests in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election — many of which were organized online or at least amplified there — say calls to action seem curiously absent on social media.

After Trump's victory, the 4B movement is spreading across TikTok
WIRED
Vittoria Elliott & Angela Watercutter
The 4B movement, from South Korea, calls for women to not date, marry, sleep with, or have children with men. Women are calling for the movement to take off in the US after Donald Trump won the election. Talk of adapting the 4B movement to American politics isn’t just taking off on TikTok. Since Tuesday, there has also been chatter on X, Threads, and r/Feminism.

In this Florida school district, some parents are pushing back against a cellphone ban
Associated Press
Kate Payne
It’s no surprise that students are pushing back on cellphone bans in classrooms. But school administrators in one South Florida county working to pull students’ eyes away from their screens are facing some resistance from another group as well – parents.

Americas

Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue
Reuters
Ismail Shakil
Canada on Wednesday ordered Chinese-owned TikTok's business in the country to be dissolved, citing national-security risks, but added the government was not blocking Canadians' access to the short-video app or their ability to create content.

The legal showdown that could reshape online shopping in Argentina
Rest of World
David Feliba
Argentina’s banks have accused MercadoLibre of monopolising the market through its digital wallet. There is no end in sight for the monthslong duel whose outcome could affect the lives of millions of people. For isolated communities, far from the bustling capital of Buenos Aires, online shopping isn’t a luxury — it’s a vital resource that eliminates the need to travel to distant cities to stock up on essential goods.

North Asia

South Korea fights deepfake porn surge with tougher punishment and regulation
ABC News
South Korea has announced several steps to curb a surge in deepfake porn, saying it will toughen punishment for offenders, expand the use of undercover officers and impose greater regulations on social media platforms. Concerns about non-consensual explicit videos that were digitally manipulated deepened in South Korea after unconfirmed lists of schools with victims spread online in August.

Southeast Asia

Malaysia’s new data centres create thousands of jobs — and worries about power and water shortages
Rest of World
Ushar Daniele & Khadija Alam
Data centres for companies like Google, Amazon, and Nvidia are transforming Johor state, with locals bracing for higher real estate costs and power and water shortages. Malaysia has released new guidelines for data centre development to minimise impact.

Australia partners with the Philippines for ‘cyber boot program’
CyberDaily
Daniel Croft
The two nations are looking to bolster the south-east Asian country’s cyber defences with a “cyber boot program” that will increase local awareness of how to prepare best for cyber attacks and deal with them when they do occur.

Europe

Major Ukrainian university bans Telegram to reduce cyberthreats
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Ukraine’s largest university has banned the use of Telegram for official communications, marking a new effort to limit reliance on the Russian-founded messaging app, which Ukrainian authorities consider a national security threat.

5 things to know about defense chief Andrius Kubilius’ European Parliament hearing
POLITICO
Joshua Posaner, Laura Kayali, Eva Hartog, Giovanna Coi & Max Griera
If the EU wants a bite of a trillion-euro space economy, it needs to rethink how it manages its space programs, Kubilius said. In addition to GPS-alternative Galileo and Earth observation network Copernicus, Kubilius should sign off on contracts for the IRIS² system in December, as a European alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink military-grade satellite constellation.

Slovak telemedicine roll-out driving healthcare efficiency, resilience
EURACTIV
Filip Áč
Remote healthcare in Slovakia continues to struggle with accessibility, awareness, and implementation. A new legislative framework for telemedicine is being incorporated into the country's healthcare system.

UK

UK orders Chinese owners to relinquish control of Scottish semiconductor business
The Record by Recorded Future
Alexander Martin
The British government on Wednesday ordered a Chinese-owned holding company to sell its shares in a Scottish semiconductor business following a national security assessment. Under the United Kingdom’s National Security and Investment Act 2021, the government can “scrutinise and intervene in business transactions, such as takeovers, to protect national security” in 17 sensitive areas of the economy.

Africa

Mozambique restricts internet access amid violent crackdown on post-election protests.
The Verge
Gaby del Valle
The Mozambican government imposed sweeping internet restrictions on October 25th after mass demonstrations broke out in the aftermath of the country’s presidential election.

Big Tech

Facebook asks US supreme court to dismiss fraud suit over Cambridge Analytica scandal
The Guardian
The US supreme court grappled on Wednesday with a bid by Meta’s Facebook to scuttle a federal securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders who accused the social media platform of misleading them about the misuse of user data. Securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders accuses the social media platform of misleading them about misuse of user data.

Roblox is banning kids from ‘social hangout’ spaces
The Verge
Jay Peters
Roblox is going to block kids from accessing certain types of experiences following reports alleging that the platform has enabled child abuse.

Artificial Intelligence

The doctors pioneering the use of AI to improve outcomes for patients
Financial Times
Sarah Neville
Faster diagnostics, more targeted treatment and better communication are among areas of healthcare already benefiting from artificial intelligence. But, as in many industries, its full potential is only now starting to emerge, and uncertainty remains about exactly how AI can best be harnessed to deliver better, more efficient care — and improve the experiences of patients and healthcare staff.

Events & Podcasts

In-conversation discussion with Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr.
ASPI
ASPI is pleased to invite you to join us in Melbourne on November 11 for a special event featuring Philippines Secretary for National Defense, the Honourable Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. On his first official visit to Australia as Defense Secretary, Teodoro will join the Australian Strategic Policy Institute for an event in Melbourne focused on the Philippines’ priorities for defence policy, and regional security, including challenges in the South China Sea.

AI, AGI, governance and tech power with Connor Leahy
Technology & Security
This episode unpacks the transformative potential of AI and AGI and need for responsible, global governance, drawing parallels to historical successes in treaties for ethical science practices, such as the moratorium on human cloning.

The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.