Making the Best of a Ban Situation

Spain checked Palantir today, apparently, by the way, just while we're dragging Palantir.

Yeah, apparently they announced today, following the lead of, I think, France, that they were going to basically bar them from all public contracting.

So it can happen.

Interesting.

Interesting.

Thank you, Spain.

Viva España.

Leading by example.

OK, so let's get into the social media ban stuff this week.

There's a whole range of stories.

I think we should start with kind of where we are.

The ban that everyone knows about in Australia that continues to be a kind of giant live experiment, I think, for the rest of the world.

There was news this week that the Australian government is going to extend new legislation, pass new legislation to double banning.

the fines the platforms can receive for not following the social media ban.

And they're going to give the regulator there, the eSafety Commission, more powers to enforce the ban.

And so this is a doubling down of the existing ban.

You shared an article, Corey, from the conversation about how we might need to rethink how we measure the ban.

Just give me your sense of like the Oz ban generally.

When you look at it, do you see it as a kind of serious piece of policy? Is it political posturing? How would you characterize him?

Well, I mean, first of all, to go back to something that I said earlier, what we're doing now is trying to flex a muscle that we let go for 20 years.

So, you know, we're taking our first baby steps in the idea that the way these corporations behave should be a uniquely law-free zone.

But I think...

Look, it's definitely the case that this has been a tricky area to legislate in and kids be getting around stuff, right? I mean, they absolutely do.

There was an article in the British Medical Journal last week as well that actually showed that this particular one has been even more circumvented than it was originally thought, like kids do get around it.

Although there has been some research suggesting that if you weren't already using it, you might have been less likely to start.