Red Packet

Waterhouse’s Ulysses and the Sirens (1891), in the National Gallery of Victoria. More than a decade ago, before TikTok existed, before Instagram had Stories or an algorithmic feed, and before YouTube automatically served up the next video, Evgeny Morozov was already taking drastic measures to get away from the internet. The tech critic had bought a safe with a timed combination lock. Into it went his phone and his internet cable.

This piece was originally published in the ASPI Cyber & Tech Digest on Friday, 26 June. Apologies to subscribers who receive both. Remember when, only a few years ago, money was basically free? Mortgage rates started with a 1, every app came with a sign-up credit, Uber felt absurdly cheap, and streaming services cost less than a sandwich. Debt was cheap, capital was abundant, and many of the services consumers got hooked on were subsidised.

This piece was originally published in the ASPI Cyber & Tech Digest on Friday, 28 February. Apologies to subscribers who receive both. A quick update before you read: on the day it published, Polymarket saw $529 million in trading on Iran strike contracts, with six newly created wallets making roughly $1 million by betting on strikes hours before the first explosions in Tehran. OpenAI has since fired an employee for trading on Polymarket with confidential company information.

Last year, before taking long service leave, I wrote an article for The Strategist about what Australia could learn from China’s approach to youth screen-time restrictions. My argument was simple: whatever social media platforms are doing to keep under-13s off their services isn’t working, and the responsibility for enforcing age limits should be distributed across the entire digital ecosystem—from app developers to app stores and device manufacturers.