🔎 Today’s Daily Sift: Social Media Instagram Version Social media is entering its legitimacy crisis. Australia is trying to strengthen enforcement of its under 16 social media law after delays pushed new amendments into further review. The issue is not whether platforms influence childhood. That debate is over. The issue is enforcement. Who verifies age? Who preserves evidence? Who gets punished when kids remain inside systems designed to capture attention? At the same time, the UK culture secretary and her department have left X, citing concerns over democracy, abuse, and misinformation. That is a major signal. Institutions are beginning to withdraw from platforms they once treated as unavoidable. The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report shows why this matters: Social and video platforms are now central gateways to news and public reality. The feed is not just entertainment anymore. It is culture. Politics. Identity. Status. Belief formation. The contrad...