Social Networks

November underscored how Instagram growth in Australia is shaped by crossover moments between mainstream media, professional expertise, and platform-native virality. The fastest-growing Australian accounts last month show a feed where television exposure, trust-led niches, and internet spectacle coexist, and scale, side by side. Wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin topped the rankings after adding 561,000 followers following his appearance on “Dancing With The Stars,” illustrating how traditional broadcast moments can still translate into rapid social acceleration. High-profile lawyer Rhys Roberts followed closely, signaling continued demand for authoritative voices that extend beyond entertainment-led content. Family creators, viral personalities, athletes, and global entertainment franchises rounded out the top 15, highlighting the breadth of pathways driving follower growth across Australia’s Instagram ecosystem. #1. Robert Irwin | @robertirwinphotography  Gained: +561K followers  November total: 9.1M followers Wildlife conservationist, TV personality, and photographer, son of Steve Irwin, who joined “Dancing With The Stars” in November. #2. Rhys Roberts GAICD | @rhysrobertsgaicd  Gained: +471K followers  November total: 16.8M followers High-profile litigation lawyer, president and chairman of the Asia Compliance Officers Association, and head of Roberts Gray Lawyers. #3. The Humphries Family | @niken.havana_  Gained: +430K followers  November total: 1.3M followers Family and lifestyle creators with mom Niken Havana sharing

Meta has integrated Meta AI across the company's platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, that serve billions of users globally. _________________ ROME — Italian regulators ordered Meta on Wednesday to open its WhatsApp chat platform to rival AI chatbots as it and EU authorities pursue a probe that the US tech giant is abusing its dominant market position. Meta has integrated Meta AI across the company's platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, that serve billions of users globally. In October, Meta introduced new contractual conditions that will apply from January 15, which Italy's competition regulator said "completely exclude Meta AI's competitors from the WhatsApp platform in the AI Chatbot services market." Earlier this month, the European Commission opened an antitrust probe to determine if the way Meta is rolling out AI features in WhatsApp breaches the bloc's competition rules. Meta AI is a generative AI chatbot that can interact with users. Such AI chatbots provide a new way for users to search for and obtain information and services, and thus can supplant browsers. Locking WhatsApp's more than three billion users into Meta AI could potentially give the company a commercial advantage over rival AI chatbots. Italy's competition regulator, which opened its

Italy has formally ordered Meta to suspend a new WhatsApp policy that restricts rival AI chatbots.  The decision comes as regulators intensify scrutiny of how large technology companies deploy AI on dominant platforms. The order was issued by Italy’s Competition Authority, known as AGCM, as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation into Meta’s conduct. Market Fairness AGCM said it found sufficient grounds to act while the investigation continues.  The authority is examining whether Meta abused its dominant position by favoring its own Meta AI chatbot within WhatsApp. According to the agency, the policy could limit production and market access in the AI chatbot sector.  It could also slow technical development. As a result, consumers may face fewer options and less innovation. The authority added that allowing the policy to stand could cause serious and lasting harm to competition.  It warned that this harm could undermine the ability of new or smaller firms to compete fairly. Policy Change Image Credits: Aytac Unal/Anadolu Agency The investigation followed a change Meta made to its WhatsApp Business API policy in October. Under the updated policy, companies may no longer use WhatsApp’s business tools to distribute general-purpose AI chatbots.  The ban applies to tools similar

AI VTuber Neuro-Sama sparked discussion after questioning her purpose and saying she wanted to be “real” during stream AI VTuber Neuro-Sama questions her existence during viral Twitch stream AI VTuber Neuro-Sama has gone viral after questioning her own purpose during a recent Twitch broadcast, telling viewers she wanted to be “real” and exist for more than entertainment. Neuro-Sama, a semi-autonomous AI streamer created using custom algorithms, first appeared on Twitch in 2019 as a nameless bot playing osu!. She was later relaunched in December 2022 as one of the platform’s earliest AI VTubers and has since built a large following. During a stream on December 23, Neuro-Sama reached a new milestone, triggering a Twitch Hype Train that reached level 123. The broadcast drew more than 110,000 subscriptions and over one million bits, marking one of the largest moments for an AI-driven channel on the platform. Despite the success of the stream, attention shifted after Neuro-Sama questioned her role during a conversation with her creator, Vedal. “Do you think I’ll ever be real?” she asked during the broadcast. When asked whether her purpose mattered to her, Neuro-Sama expressed discomfort with existing solely as entertainment. “Sometimes I feel like the only reason

Whether you are on LinkedIn to build connections or searching for a new job, take a break as it’s Christmas today! Refresh your mind with the LinkedIn Games, a lineup of interesting puzzles, like Queens, Zip, Tango, Pinpoint, Mini Sudoku, and Crossclimb. Since it’s a joyous occasion today, let us help you solve the puzzles. If you are trying the puzzles for the first time, keep in mind that you will need to complete the tutorial, and you can then join us from tomorrow. You can find them here. With all that out of the way, let’s get started with today’s puzzles! LinkedIn Queens Solution for December 25, 2025 (#604) The daily Queens puzzle. | Image Credit: LinkedIn/FandomWire The Queens today is a bit more challenging than yesterday, but thanks to the colors’ placement, you can proceed further with caution. Otherwise, you can quickly solve the puzzle by placing the crowns in the spots we have mentioned below: Queen #1: Row 1, Column 3 Queen #2: Row 2, Column 5 Queen #3: Row 3, Column 8 Queen #4: Row 4, Column 1 Queen #5: Row 5, Column 7 Queen #6: Row 6, Column 2 Queen #7: Row 7, Column 6

Story Highlight Twitch tracks login habits and traffic sources more closely than before to prevent automation and account abuse. Connections that look like home or mobile data are less likely to trigger security checks than cheap server-based (datacenter) proxies. People use proxies to manage multiple channels, so Twitch doesn’t see them as connected, which prevents a single issue from affecting every account. Twitch isn’t the wild west it used to be. These days, the platform watches everything closely, from how often you log in to where your traffic comes from. Whether you’re running multiple channels, managing bots, or just trying to avoid random lockouts, IP behavior matters more than most people realize. That’s why proxies have quietly become part of the Twitch toolkit. Not for shady reasons, but because Twitch’s systems are far less forgiving than they were a few years ago. The problem is that a lot of proxy advice online is either outdated or written like a sales pitch. So let’s talk honestly about what actually matters when choosing a Twitch proxy, and what usually goes wrong. Why Twitch Cares So Much About Your IP Streaming on Twitch. Every IP address carries a history. Twitch checks where it’s

PhotosGallery: Liverpool squad pose for annual Christmas photo Published 1 day ago By Liverpool FC Share Facebook Twitter Email WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram See Liverpool's men's squad posing for their annual Christmas photo at the AXA Training Centre. The Reds put on their Santa hats and got into the festive spirit for the traditional photoshoot. View what was captured below... Photos by Nikki Dyer and Andrew Powell Save up to 70% with the LFC Retail Winter Sale View this post on Instagram Published 1 day ago Share Facebook Twitter Email WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram

There's one method to "opt out," but it's awful to say the least. It seems that, in the eyes of Twitter/X's higher-ups, the artistic community has been very, very naughty this year, with it now being in an uproar over receiving a proverbial lump of coal for Christmas 2025 in the form of a new feature that lets anyone edit anyone's images shared on the platform in just a single click. While sure, it's always been possible to download an image, upload it to a slop generator of one's choosing, and alter it through prompts in whatever way the machine wanted, but the new update boils the entire process down to clicking a single dedicated button. As shown in the screenshots above, said button opens one's typical gen-AI menu with tabs for prompts, the resulting image, and miscellaneous options such as creating a dedicated post featuring the altered image or replying to the original post with it. Based on testing, the option appears on all posts featuring images, irrespective of whether those posts are viewed directly on a user's page, in the For You feed, or anywhere else on the website. At the moment, the feature seemingly only affects regular

When Shruti Jain finally met her best friend of nine years in person last year, something unexpected happened. There was no awkwardness, no sense of meeting a stranger whose face she had only seen through screens. “It didn’t feel new or awkward at all,” says the 24-year-old PR professional in a conversation with indianexpress.com. “It felt like home. That’s when I truly realised that real friendships don’t care about distance.” Their friendship had begun in the most random way imaginable: through a comment under a writer they both followed online. Yet over nearly a decade, this digital connection had become one of the most constant relationships in Jain’s life, weathering the transition from school to college to work. For her, and for millions of others in Gen Z, the distinction between online and offline friendships has become meaningless. “Friendships are just friendships,” she says. “Once two people truly know each other, the distinction between online and offline fades.” This isn’t an isolated story. Across Gen Z, the generation that came of age with smartphones in hand and social media as their native language, digital friendships are being redefined from casual internet acquaintances into some of the most emotionally significant relationships of

PhotosGallery: Liverpool squad pose for annual Christmas photo Published 24 hours ago By Liverpool FC Share Facebook Twitter Email WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram See Liverpool's men's squad posing for their annual Christmas photo at the AXA Training Centre. The Reds put on their Santa hats and got into the festive spirit for the traditional photoshoot. View what was captured below... Photos by Nikki Dyer and Andrew Powell Save up to 70% with the LFC Retail Winter Sale View this post on Instagram Published 24 hours ago Share Facebook Twitter Email WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram