Jamie Smyth

Australia’s competition watchdog has begun an investigation into the market power of Facebook, Google and other digital platforms to determine if they are harming the media and advertising industries. The probe follows an order by the government of a formal inquiry into the internet giants’ impact on the industry, as part of a shake-up of media laws in September.

In some upside-down logic from the land of down under, Australian consumers have been able to upgrade their broadband internet access to the latest fibre-optic lines, only to receive slower speeds than over ageing copper wires. Such experiences are the absurd result of a grandiose government plan to bankroll what was supposed to be the world’s most advanced broadband network, called NBN.