WTF now?! #8 – Monday 3–Sunday 9 March 2025

Facebook hid posts about Cyclone Alfred, we need to defend the arts from partisanship and YouTube’s exemption from the social media age ban is questioned.

Returning home from Taipei on Monday straight into cylcone preparation as Tropical Cyclone Alfred loomed off the Queensland coast left me saying WTF now?! I wasn’t even sure I would manage a post this week if there were power outages and telecommunications were down. But thankfully where I am was largely spared. My thoughts are with those who were more significantly impacted.

While we are talking about the cyclone, I was very concerned that Facebook had been hiding content about the cyclone from users. Notices in search results claimed some content was in breach of its Community Standards and Meta claims it was a technical glitch. That sounds like a cop-out to me. What do you think?

This week I am also increasingly concerned bipartisanship in the arts is over. As Trump’s takeover of the arts in the US continues to unfurl (but not without opposition) could it give Dutton ideas about arts policy without Creative Australia? In my opinion, the ongoing Venice Biennale saga makes it a target under the guise of an Australian DOGE-style ‘government efficiency’ push.

Circling back to Meta and social media, the social media giant has also come out against YouTube being exempted from the Australian social media minimum age scheme when it comes into force.

Also this week : a Spanish contemporary art museum added nearly 500 new works by underrepresented artists while a prominent US art museum cancelled two exhibitions featuring Caribbean and American artists of African-descent, the DOJ continues its push to break up Google and record labels up the stakes in their copyright claim against the Internet Archive.

What's been going on?

Here’s what I’ve noticed this week:

Cyclone Alfred content was blocked on Facebook in the lead-up to landfall