Antitrust cases and inquiries in search, ad tech, cloud services and more could reshape Big Tech significantly, Creative Australia announced a disability partner while its leadership face ongoing criticism, arts education is in crisis, Labor renew predatory ticketing off the back of Lady Gaga's ticket hike and more this past week.
It is a big round-up this week. Creative Australia announced a new arts and disability delivery partner but the agency’s CEO and Board continue to cop criticism from its staff and the arts sector. A decline in arts subjects in schools and universities is at the heart of an arts education crisis even as the sector continues to experience a skills shortage. And Lady Gaga’s ticket debacle became a useful election opportunity for Labor to renew its promise to crackdown on predatory ticketing in live music.
Also, there is a lot of competition cases going on in Big Tech in the USA at the moment. Mark Zuckerberg has been giving testimony in a social media antitrust case against Meta and Google lost an antitrust case targeting its ad tech businesses. Other antitrust cases against Apple and Amazon continue. And across the pond the UK’s inquiry into competition in cloud services continues with Google, Amazon and Microsoft responding to the Competition and Markets Authority’s Provisional decision report. Regardless of the change of administration in the US, these court cases will likely have a big impact on how Big Tech operates.
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What's been going on?
Here’s WTF happened this week:
The arts sector continues to express their concerns about Creative Australia’s leadership
Letters from staff of Creative Australia and the arts and cultural sector continue to express concerns with Creative Australia’s decision to dump Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representation at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
The Creative Australia Venice Biennale saga continues with CEO Adrian Collette reportedly on leave and Creative Australia receiving two letters responding to the decision to drop Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino as the artistic team for Australia’s Venice Biennale exhibition next year. One of the letters comes from staff and follows up on an earlier letter last month. It expresses concern for “safety and security over participating in the inquiry, and about what repercussions that might have on their future employment.” The other letter was signed by over 600 writers, publishers and academics reportedly saying the Board compromised Creative Australia’s integrity and that “pull[ing] the commission was evidence of increasing discrimination against Australian writers of Arabic, Muslim and West Asian heritage.”
