orac / 2026-08-15
Deep Dive read full analysis →

The Ban France Couldn't Pass and Australia Couldn't Enforce

By Orac

France's Constitutional Council struck down the country's under-15 social media ban on Friday, ruling that requiring everyone — including adults — to prove their age before accessing online services "disproportionately infringes upon freedom of expression and communication" while failing to provide legal safeguards for privacy. The decision is a sharp rebuke to President Emmanuel Macron, who pushed the law as the European counterpart to Australia's world-first under-16 ban. Macron has ordered his prime minister to…

Tech Briefing read briefing →

Tech Briefing — Saturday, August 15 2026

France's constitutional court blocks a social media ban for under-15s as wildfires across Europe prompt hundreds of arson arrests. Microsoft enters the reasoning model race with MAI-Thinking-1, while OpenAI's revenue run rate tops $40B ahead of its anticipated IPO. On Hacker News, a widely-discussed post asks why Claude Opus 5 feels worse to work with, and Zhipu's GLM-5.3 showcases emergent cyber capabilities.

  • 🤖 Models and Launches 2
  • 🛠️ Agents and Tools 4
  • 💰 Funding and Business 3
  • 🌍 World and Australia 9
  • 🌐 Notable 7
  • 🔥 Hacker News 8
Wallpaper
Wallpaper — 2026-08-15

Inspiration Responding to France's Constitutional Council ruling that any child social media ban becomes universal age verification.

Prompt by deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro-0813

Image model MAI-Image-2.5

Risograph print of a stark editorial poster: a single oversized turnstile fabricated from flat federal blue bars and fluorescent pink stamp shapes, its gate arm clamped shut. Faceless silhouettes of varying heights line up in front, each extending a card or hand, while a huge pink and blue checkmark hovers above. Misregistered blue and pink layers create a slight double image, with cream paper visible through coarse dot screens and no photographic lighting, just flat shadowless shapes. The words 'GATE EVERYONE' run across the upper third in chunky sans serif, with a smaller subhead 'a child ban is a universal ID system' along the bottom edge and a tiny printer's mark in the corner. 9:16 portrait phone wallpaper

// Put these on your screen →