Severe weather warnings have also been issued for Victoria, southern New South Wales and parts of South Australia Two people have died, a hospital has been damaged and thousands of properties left without power in Tasmania, as severe winds buffet Australia’s south-east. Weather warnings were also in place on Friday afternoon in parts of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia as the weather system moved towards the country’s east coast. Continue reading...

Julie Inman Grant says message board will need to comply with other codes which will also include age assurance for sites hosting violent and adult content * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The eSafety commissioner is not expected to block children from accessing 4chan as part of the under-16s social media ban, despite it being labelled one of the “darker” places on the internet. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was asked by independent senator Fatima Payman in Senate estimates on Wednesday night whether 4chan, the message board often referred to as the engine room of the internet, would be considered one of the sites required to prevent under-16s when the social media ban comes into effect from 10 December. Continue reading...

Search engine added ‘STI testing’ to list of sensitive topics, censoring important public health campaign, Greens leader says * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Google has blocked ads for a commonwealth-funded STI awareness campaign as “adult content” in a move sexual health organisations say frustrates efforts to share evidence-based public health information online. The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that the tech company’s moderation practices had recently undermined the reach and cost-effectiveness of the national campaign, run by Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia (SRHA). Continue reading...