Is Trump buying votes? + Insta warns killing the algo will 'overwhelm' you

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:08)

Hi, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you. Welcome to The Briefing. Today marks 25 years since the deadliest attack ever carried out on US soil, when 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and flew two of them into the Twin Towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania.

Nearly 3,000 people died on 9-11, and the shadow at caste stretched far beyond that morning, into the longest war America has ever fought.

SPEAKER_2 (0:36)

They never heard of New York. Why would they hear about New York suddenly, that this place far away, and that planes had smashed into these tall skyscrapers, more than 100 stories high, and there was no building of that size in Afghanistan. This was something that people there didn't know about, but what they did know about was war.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:59)

25 years on, we're looking back at the long shadow of 9-11 through the eyes of one of the journalists who witnessed the invasion of Afghanistan from start to end. That will be in your feeds as a separate episode right after the headlines with Chris Spyrou this Friday, the 11th of September.

Chris Spyrou (1:18)

Morning, Sacha. The head of Instagram has weighed in on the Albanese government's plan to let Australians switch off the algorithm, and he reckons it will make the experience worse for users. Adam Masseri didn't attack the proposal head on, but during a rare Australian press briefing yesterday, where reporters were told upfront that he wouldn't be discussing the government's plan, he did though offer up his view on chronological feeds. He argued that the average feed actually gets worse when you turn the algorithm off, because users end up, quote, overwhelmed with content from companies, brands and publishers.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:51)

Masseri says it comes down to how often people post and businesses can afford to post far more often than the rest of us. So when your feed just runs in the order that things are shared, the friends and creators you actually follow end up buried. I would say there's an unfollow button then for that reason.

He also claimed you miss a lot more content that way and spend a lot less time on the app. Also arguably not a bad thing, at least for users, maybe not for Masseri. Engagement drops by as much as 50%, he reckons. In the same briefing, he said he doesn't actually think Instagram is addictive. This is a whole lot of cope, I reckon, from Instagram.

Chris Spyrou (2:27)

Yeah. Well, the thing is this press briefing was designed to be all about Instagram's new short form series, Algo Confessions, as well as your algorithm feature, which is this, there's like this series and there's all these training modules that he puts out online about how to make the most out of the algorithm and how to make sure that your videos pop up and these are the hooks that work and this is carousels are working this week. So he, look, his vested interest is to make people want to stay on the app and make that experience good. But I mean, oh, just like, come on, trying to say that he doesn't. And he goes, I know it's controversial, but I don't think it's addictive, mate.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:06)

Yeah, look, it's interesting. And, you know, of course, he runs the company. Of course he wants people to spend more time on Instagram. That's the whole issue. And that's why it's not just Australian politicians kind of leading this push for, you know, kind of this reckoning for big tech. It's happening right across the world. And it does feel like, you know, we're trying to turn the tables a little bit because we know just how addictive they are. We know how damaging they can be. So yeah, interesting to hear him try and defend it, but it's not surprising.

Chris Spyrou (3:33)

Barnaby Joyce has issued an apology to Andrew Hastie over a One Nation cartoon that labelled him a traitor. The clip from the party's Please Explain YouTube series was published in July and depicts Hastie in conversation with Anthony Albanese.

SPEAKER_4 (3:47)

Traitor? Why are they calling you a traitor? I don't know. All I did was testify against Ben Robert Smith and support your evil hate speech legislation after promising not to. Yeah right, that is pretty traitorous actually.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:58)

So some context, Hastie was subpoenaed to give evidence at the trial of disgraced former soldier and accused war criminal Ben Robert Smith, but he says calling him a traitor over that issue means the cartoon is also an attack on the 20 other SAS veterans who were called on to testify. Hastie has demanded the video be removed, but Pauline Hanson has refused, saying it's satirical and she never personally called him a traitor.