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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Daily OS. It is Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: the eighth of February. Good morning. Hope you're waking up well.

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Speaker 1: Hope you've had a coffee and are on your way

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Speaker 1: to work. If you're still working from home, hope you've

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Speaker 1: at least gone around the block. It's been a while

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Speaker 1: of working from home life. Enough about that, let's talk

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Speaker 1: about the news today. We're going to be looking at

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Speaker 1: the tumultuous week that Meta we might know them as Facebook,

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Speaker 1: have had on stock markets all over the world, and

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Speaker 1: their company numbers are not good. We're going to tell

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Speaker 1: you all about that. But first, Mariah, what is making

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Speaker 1: headlines this morning.

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Speaker 2: The federal government has announced up to one thousand, seven

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Speaker 2: hundred Australian Defense Force personnel will be deployed to help

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Speaker 2: staff in the age care sector amid the spread of

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Speaker 2: the omicron variant. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said whilst

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Speaker 2: we are seeing a decrease in the number of active cases,

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Speaker 2: we do know that there are significant pressures in specific facilities.

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Speaker 1: Sticking with Federal Government news now and Minister for Defense

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Speaker 1: Peter Dudden has rejected the claim made by former New

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Speaker 1: South Wales Premier Bob Carr that he is the Liberal

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Speaker 1: cabinet minister who leaked the text messages that called Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister Scott Morrison a quote complete psycho. Dutton said Car's

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Speaker 1: tweet was baseless, untrue and should be deleted.

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Speaker 2: Lifeline has announced it has expanded its text and chat

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Speaker 2: services to operate twenty four hours a day, seven days

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Speaker 2: a week, to be more accessible for hard to reach groups.

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Speaker 2: CEO Colin Series said the service is unique in that

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Speaker 2: it allows for genuine privacy during contact, so it is

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Speaker 2: well suited to support cohorts at heightened vulnerability, such as

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Speaker 2: help seekers experiencing domestic and family violence or those living

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Speaker 2: with the disability.

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Speaker 1: And today's good news a massive announcement yesterday from the

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia will reopen its borders

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Speaker 1: to all remaining visa holders on the twenty first of February.

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Speaker 1: This means double vaccinated international visitors can return to Australia.

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Speaker 1: Morrison said that state based cap arrangement on arrivals and

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Speaker 1: state based quarantine arrangements will still continue. So you might

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Speaker 1: have seen some headlines last week speaking about meta Whenever

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Speaker 1: I say meta and whenever Mariah talks to us about Meta,

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Speaker 1: you have to think Facebook, that's the new name. And

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Speaker 1: the news was mostly about share prices and a decrease

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Speaker 1: in the daily active users. So let me set the scene.

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Speaker 1: On Friday, it was reported that shares of Facebook parent

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Speaker 1: company Meta fell twenty six point four percent on Wall Street.

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Speaker 1: That meant the company lost about two hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: billion US dollars in value or about Australian three hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty two billion. That's the largest one day drop

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Speaker 1: a company has experienced in history. Mark Zuckerberg himself lost

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Speaker 1: over thirty billion dollars in a single day. It actually

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Speaker 1: meant he dropped out of the top ten richest people

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Speaker 1: in the US for the first time since twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 1: That is quite spectacular. But what was the cause by

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Speaker 1: behind all of this? The fall comes after the company

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Speaker 1: released a report predicting weaker than expected revenue in the

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Speaker 1: next quarter, and it also revealed Facebook's first ever drop

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Speaker 1: in daily active users in the last quarter. One likely

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Speaker 1: reason for the fall is the success of rivals, especially TikTok.

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Speaker 1: Mariah is TikTok the real reason as to why things

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Speaker 1: are going south at Facebook?

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Speaker 2: Well, it is certainly fair to argue that other apps

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Speaker 2: such as TikTok, who are popping up on the market

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Speaker 2: have stolen potential Facebook users. Yes, that is one contributing factor,

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Speaker 2: But it is also fair to say that there are

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Speaker 2: various other pressing issues that Facebook and Meta are facing

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Speaker 2: and have faced, contributing to this daily active user decline.

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Speaker 2: But let me reiterate, it is not to say that

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Speaker 2: the popularization of TikTok and other competitor apps haven't contributed.

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Speaker 2: It most certainly has. But a good way to think

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Speaker 2: of it is to think of it like a cocktail

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Speaker 2: of issues.

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Speaker 1: A cocktail that's becoming increasingly constant, traded with other players

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Speaker 1: in the market. Let's turn to the number of daily

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Speaker 1: active users. When we learned that this declined, Was this

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Speaker 1: a surprise to people?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not. Facebook has known about these issues for a

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Speaker 2: long time and it is not new information. In particular,

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Speaker 2: Facebook has faced significant issues around capturing the attention of

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Speaker 2: younger audiences. Again, that is not new information. We knew

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Speaker 2: this well before Meta made its announcement last week. Facebook's

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Speaker 2: issue of capturing the attention of younger audiences was reiterated

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Speaker 2: during what was known as the Facebook Files which was

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Speaker 2: a huge document leak that told us that this had

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Speaker 2: been an ongoing issue for many years. The Verge noted

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Speaker 2: in their podcast, however, that Instagram was actually supposed to

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Speaker 2: be the younger platform that Meta offered. However, you might

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Speaker 2: have noticed that Instagram have actually introduced features that have

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Speaker 2: got to do with shopping and commerce. That was a

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Speaker 2: deliberate decision by Instagram, who decided to take a new

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Speaker 2: direction for the app. Whether that pivot will actually capture

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Speaker 2: the attention of young people or continue to do so

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Speaker 2: is unclear. And further, Instagram has attempted to implement features

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Speaker 2: similar to TikTok, think reels and videos, but it has

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Speaker 2: not seen near the same growth as what TikTok has.

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Speaker 2: Meta hasn't given us specific data on Rules's usage figures,

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Speaker 2: but outside research has told us that it is falling

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Speaker 2: much further behind TikTok in the battle for younger users' attention.

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Speaker 1: It makes me feel very old as a twenty seven

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Speaker 1: year old for you to be talking like that. I

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Speaker 1: had a question around privacy issues. I've noticed a few

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Speaker 1: headlines around the role that Apple and some changes are

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Speaker 1: playing in all of this. Can you tell me a

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Speaker 1: little bit about what's been happening in that space.

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Speaker 2: This is a really important aspect and Facebook did actually

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Speaker 2: specifically mention this. If you're an iPhone user, you might

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Speaker 2: have noticed that recently your device often asks you for

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Speaker 2: your permission for third party apps like Facebook to track you.

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Speaker 2: This was a recent update from Apple which included privacy

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Speaker 2: changes allowing users to prevent apps from tracking their online

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Speaker 2: activity for advertising purposes. So this specifically affected big tech

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Speaker 2: and specifically Facebook. As you can imagine, Facebook was not

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Speaker 2: happy about that update, and it actually cited this specifically

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Speaker 2: as an issue when it came to daily active users.

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Speaker 2: David Wiener, Meta's chief financial officer said, and I quote,

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Speaker 2: we believe the impact of iOS overall is a headwind

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Speaker 2: on our business in twenty twenty two. iOS refers to

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Speaker 2: the software that iPhones use in saying that to what

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Speaker 2: extent this specific privacy change caused for Meta is unclear.

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Speaker 2: I do say this because big tech companies like Snapchat

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Speaker 2: had reported that it had bounced back from those changes

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Speaker 2: implemented by Apple, along with several other tech companies like

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Speaker 2: Amazon whose ad revenue and Pinterest whose ad revenue just

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Speaker 2: to name a couple, were also largely unaffected overall by

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Speaker 2: the change, So we don't know specific numbers, but we

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Speaker 2: do know that other companies were fine.

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Speaker 1: It wouldn't be a podcast episode about Meta and Facebook

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Speaker 1: if we didn't touch on the metaverse. Firstly, remind me

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Speaker 1: what exactly the metaverse is, but tell me did that

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Speaker 1: give any sense of hope for the company in their

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Speaker 1: forward looking projections?

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Speaker 2: Again, this is another interesting aspect, a reminder of what

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Speaker 2: the metaverse is. Think of it as a world but digitally,

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Speaker 2: and you access that world by usually wearing VR goggles

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Speaker 2: or virtual reality goggles. As we know, Meta changed its

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Speaker 2: name from Facebook to Meta last year, and by doing

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Speaker 2: that it ensured that it was the pioneer and the

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Speaker 2: forefront of virtual reality technology and what is known as

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Speaker 2: the metaverse. You could certainly argue that with that name

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Speaker 2: change came a different focus and attention on the metaverse

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Speaker 2: by Mark Zuckerberg himself and his executives, and with that

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Speaker 2: change in focus, it has not helped those underlying issues

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Speaker 2: of user retention. Essentially, the company's priorities have changed, and

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Speaker 2: it is strongly argued that the concept of the metaverse

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Speaker 2: is still years away from being fully fleshed out. And

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Speaker 2: then further being accepted by society. So it is sort

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Speaker 2: of a gamble for Meta with this new focus and

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Speaker 2: direction that they're hoping the gamble will pay off in

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Speaker 2: the long run despite the loss of users in the

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Speaker 2: short run. So it's hoping to gain those users despite

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Speaker 2: the short user loss in the short run, it's hoping

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Speaker 2: it will gain it through being the pioneers of what

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Speaker 2: is known as the metaverse. Just before we wrap this up,

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Speaker 2: it's also worth mentioning that most other social media companies

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Speaker 2: have also suffered some serious losses this past week. While

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Speaker 2: they certainly aren't as sefer as what metafaced, we saw

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Speaker 2: losses of twenty three percent in Snapchat shares, ten percent

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Speaker 2: off Pinterest, and five percent off Twitter. It's a tough

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Speaker 2: time to be in social media.

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Speaker 1: Sam except if you're the Daily Os Mariah. Webs are

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Speaker 1: going very well. Thank you so much for listening to

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Speaker 1: the podcast everybody today. We'll be back tomorrow in your ears.

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Speaker 1: Give us a rating on Spotify or a review on

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Speaker 1: Apple if you like what we're about. It really helps

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Speaker 1: us as an independent media company. Until then, follow us

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Speaker 1: on the Daily OS for all the news throughout the day.

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Speaker 1: We have a massive week in federal politics, and to

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Speaker 1: keep you in the no that's where you can find

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Speaker 1: us until tomorrow morning. Have a fantastic Tuesday,