“Meta removes Trump account restrictions ahead of 2024 election”
Axios: “Meta on Friday said it would soon roll back restrictions it placed on former President Donald Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.”
Category Archives: cheap speech
“EU charges Elon Musk’s X for letting disinfo run wild”
Politico:
The European Union is calling Elon Musk to order over how he turned social media site X into a haven for disinformation and illegal content….
In its preliminary findings, the Commission said X’s platform so-called blue checks had… Continue reading
Fighting Election Misinformation and Disinformation
An eye-opening NYT report on the inherent difficulties, despite the best efforts of the League of Women Voters and other groups:
A critical mass of research now suggests that tools such as fact checks, warning labels, prebunking and media literacy… Continue reading
Director of National Intelligence on Iranian Influence Efforts
From yesterday’s statement by Avril Haines:
The Intelligence Community recognizes the importance of informing the public of foreign efforts to influence our democratic processes and, consequently, leading into the Presidential and congressional elections this year, we are launching today the… Continue reading
“Trump Threatens Mark Zuckerberg With Prison In Unhinged Truth Social Rant”
Gizmodo: “Donald Trump threatened to put ‘election fraudsters’ in prison, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a new rant on Truth Social Tuesday morning. . . . Trump made the threat against Zuckerberg during a post about the SAVE… Continue reading
“Top Democratic lawyer backs mysterious news site”
Semafor:
A secretive local media network with ties to high-profile national Democratic operatives wants to convince regulators in Arizona that despite the political tilt of its stories, it is not a political entity and should not be subject to campaign… Continue reading
The Tik-Tok Election
Playbook:
A new report from CredoIQ shows the viral-video peril for Biden after the debate. Among the top-performing TikToks responding to the debate — which garnered 483 million views — 39 percent of views were on negative Biden content,… Continue reading
“The Government Needs to Act Fast to Protect the Election”
Gowri Ramachandran and Lawrence Norden post-Murthy in The Atlantic:
With Murthy now dismissed and limited time before November 5, the federal government can and should immediately resume its regular briefings with social-media companies about foreign interference in our elections. Although… Continue reading
“A Democratic Super PAC’s New Trump Ad Might Be Borderline Criminal”
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins:
Here’s something to scramble your brain: A progressive super PAC in Pennsylvania put out an advertisement trying to suppress mail-in voting by MAGA Republicans, and the Trump campaign responded by saying… Continue reading
Supreme Court on 6-3 Vote Rejects Social Media Government “Jawboning” Claim on Standing Grounds, But Strongly Suggests Claims of Jawboning were False
You can find the majority opinion in Murthy v. Missouri of Justice Barrett, along with the dissent of Justice Alito (joined by Justices Gorsuch and Thomas) at this link.
The claim was that government agencies pressured or coerced social media… Continue reading
“I Study Disinformation. This Election Will Be Grim.”
Renee DiResta NYT oped:
This brings us to the present, when another election looms. The 2024 rerun is already being viciously fought. Since 2020, the technological landscape has shifted. There are new social media platforms in the mix, such as… Continue reading
“Clippers Cut a Wide Swath Making Political Campaign Videos Go Viral”
NYT:
When Andrew Lawrence begins his night shift, he powers on his monitor to sift through Fox News’ evening programming.
He and his small team at Media Matters for America, the liberal nonprofit media watchdog group, spend hours each day… Continue reading
“The Biden admin has no firm plan to call out domestic disinformation in the 2024 election”
NBC News:
The Biden administration has no firm plans to alert the public about deepfakes or other false information during the 2024 election unless it is clearly coming from a foreign actor and poses a sufficiently grave threat, according to current… Continue reading
“The deceptive Biden G7 video was quickly debunked, but it kept going viral anyway”
David Ingram for NBC News:
Misleading videos and false claims that President Joe Biden wandered off aimlessly from the G7 conference last week continued to go viral despite debunkings and fact-checks that tried to correct the record.
Google recommended false… Continue reading