From rage bait to brain rot

“Rage bait” was Oxford University Press’ Word of the Year for 2025, speaking to the havoc which engagement hungry social media platforms are wreaking on individual minds and society as a whole

How big tech wrecked the internet

Cory Doctorow’s new book explains how a voracious handful of unscrupulous tech firms ruined the internet by baiting new users with free access to useful services, monetizing them on behalf of business customers, then extracting every penny of value for themselves by ruining the user experience.

Alone together

The internet was supposed to make communication easier, bring knowledge to all, and strengthen democracy and connection. Instead, it has empowered authoritarians while splintering democratic countries into ever smaller and angrier splinter groups.

Boosting internet resilience

Without a unified approach that connects submarine cable protection to terrestrial fibre, power, cooling and workforce planning, we risk compounding vulnerabilities and missing economic growth opportunities.

The battle for the internet

Democracies and authoritarian states are battling over the future of the internet in a little-known UN process which may decide whether the internet remains open or shifts control firmly into the hands of governments.

Battling the blob

The internet is overrun by bots designed to spam and imitate us and it’s time to fight back.

The library of Babel

The internet is often described as one of humanity’s great achievements. But like any other resource, it’s important to give serious thought to how it is maintained and managed – lest we end up confronting the dystopian vision imagined by Jorge Luis Borges over 80 years ago.

Reclaiming the internet

Once a brave new frontier of individual expression, the internet is now dominated by a handful of massive tech oligopolies, scammers, intrusive advertising and AI generated spam, so is there any hope for its redemption?

Keeping track of new technology

The Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) is a major new research infrastructure initiative that will open up the ‘black box’ of digital platforms and their algorithms.

Now with added fibre

Internet connectivity is vital to the whole Indo-Pacific, and the Australian government sees investment in a more connected region as a means to foster both development and regional security.

Google it, mate

Google has become the most successful advertising company in history over the last 25 years, harvesting user data from free search and mapping services to target ads at users, but AI chatbots could overturn its business model, leaving Google as obsolete as the search engines it replaced during its heyday.

The endangered species of the internet

New research shows that a small number of organisations account for an ever-increasing proportion of total attention on the internet, with one large player usually dominating in each sector.