☕️ An Australian first for deepfakes

It's lovely to be back in your inboxes after a month away.

I want to start by wishing Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie both a happy birthday for today.

It's a big day for Liberal men who want Opposition Leader Sussan Ley's job!

(Confused? We did a deep dive on it yesterday!)

“I have a feeling that we're going to have a positive answer [from Hamas]”
U.S. President Donald Trump, announcing in a press conference overnight that Israel has agreed to a U.S. proposal to end its war in Gaza, and the two parties are now waiting for Hamas to respond to the deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also at the press conference at the White House alongside Trump. According to local health authorities, more than 66,000 people in Gaza have been killed by Israel during the war, and according to Israel, at least 20 living hostages are still being held by Hamas, along with the bodies of roughly 25 others.

6.1 million
The national TV viewing reach of the AFL grand final. The Brisbane Lions won the grand final for the second year in a row, this time beating the Geelong Cats.

Canadians say “sorry” so often that the Ontario Government passed a law in 2009 declaring that an apology can’t be used as evidence of admission of fault.

Tech giant Meta is introducing a paid subscription service in the UK for users who don’t want ads on Instagram and Facebook.

It will cost £2.99 ($AU6) a month for use in a browser, and £3.99 ($AU8) for iOS and Android.

A Meta spokesperson told TDA it has “no plans to launch a paid subscription model in Australia.”

Meta says the subscription will allow people to opt out of their data being used for advertising.

The UK’s data privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), says “publishers deploying online advertising technologies must secure people’s consent.”

This is part of a wider “consent or pay” advertising model, where consumers can either pay to stop their information being shared or consent to businesses using their data.

Meta said the subscription model will support businesses who rely on its platforms for advertising.

Users who don’t pay for a subscription will continue to see ads on Instagram and Facebook.

Meta rolled out the same subscription model in Europe, starting at €5.99 ($AU11), in 2023.

The ICO said it “welcome[s] Meta’s decision to ask users for consent to use their personal information to target them with ads.”

It said “people must be given meaningful transparency and choice about how their information is used,” but that it also “recognises that online platforms, like every business, need to operate commercially.”

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

🎬 Experience a movie in the ultra-rare 1.43:1 aspect ratio – Paul Thomas Anderson’s ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER hits IMAX Melbourne on September 25. Shown on a screen seven storeys tall, tickets to this exclusive presentation at IMAX Melbourne are on sale now.

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The Federal Court has ordered a man to pay a $343,500 fine for sharing deepfake pornographic images of prominent Australian women online.

It is the first time someone has been fined specifically over the distribution of deepfakes in Australia.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the penalty “sends a strong message about the consequences for anyone who perpetrates deepfake image-based abuse.”

In Australia, it is a criminal offence to distribute sexually explicit deepfake material without consent.

Deepfakes are realistic fabricated or manipulated videos and/or images. They are designed to mislead viewers and can be made using AI.

Under the Online Safety Act, the eSafety Commissioner can issue removal notices for intimate images posted online without consent, and seek fines for those who do not comply.

The eSafety Commissioner issued Anthony (Antonio) Rotondo a removal notice for several explicit deepfakes depicting notable Australian women in 2023.

Rotondo had posted them on a site called MrDeepFakes.com, which has since been shut down.

In response to eSafety’s request, Rotondo said he was not an Australian resident, so “the removal notice means nothing”.

Rotondo then refused to comply with additional notices and fines.

He travelled to Australia in October 2023 and was arrested on a separate matter.

While in custody, Rotondo admitted to making and sharing explicit deepfakes.

He told police: “I think it’s funny... Everyone should live in fear of deepfakes. Every woman on Earth should live in fear of a camera, live in fear of Facebook.”

The following month, Rotondo gave eSafety his login details to take the images down.

The court has suppressed the names of the women in the images to protect their privacy, but said they are well known.

One told the court she felt “violated, vulnerable and completely without agency.”

In her ruling, Justice Erin Longbottom stressed the role of the large fine in deterring others who might consider sharing intimate content without consent.

“The penalty must be sufficient to send a message that contraventions of this kind are serious and not acceptable,” she said.

Inman Grant said the penalty reflects “the seriousness of the Online Safety Act breaches and the damaging impacts of the image-based abuse on the women targeted.”

1800 RESPECT

Call: 1800 737 732

Text: 0458 737 732

Video: 1800RESPECT.org.au

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

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🍊 Europe won golf’s Ryder Cup. What did Shane Lowry say?
🍊 The Brisbane Lions go back to back. More details here.
🍊 Paralympic lifts ban on Russia and Belarus. Read more here.
🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: cricket, NRL, and more…

An estimated 90% of the world’s population is exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution, with exposure to high pollution levels associated with reduced lung function. Researchers at the University of Leicester in the UK wanted to explore if specific food groups could “modify or partly mitigate,” these known adverse effects. Using data from around 200,000 participants, they determined that high fruit intake groups, especially women, inhaled fewer fine particles of pollutants. Researchers said the natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds found in fruit “could help mitigate” and offset air pollutions’ harmful effects on lung function.

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

The NFL has announced Bad Bunny will perform at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.

The Puerto Rican singer/rapper is the first Latin artist to have 100 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The halftime show is one of the biggest U.S. cultural moments every year.

In recent years, Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga have performed.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

Optus has confirmed its second triple-zero outage in less than two weeks. The latest incident affected thousands of NSW customers, and it follows an outage linked to four deaths earlier in the month. So, what’s going on with our triple-zero system? In today's podcast, we'll unpack these latest outages and explain how Australia’s emergency call service works, who is responsible for it, and what happens when it fails.