Category Archives: cheap speech

“Facebook Takes Down Fake Pages Created in China Aimed at Influencing U.S. Election”

September 23, 2020, 7:45 amcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: Facebook has detected limited Chinese operations intended to both help and hurt President Trump’s re-election chances, the company announced on Tuesday, the first public disclosure of Chinese efforts to influence the presidential election in November.The Chinese activity, while modest… Continue reading

“The Supply of Disinformation Will Soon Be Infinite; Disinformation campaigns used to require a lot of human effort, but artificial intelligence will take them to a whole new level.”

September 22, 2020, 10:04 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Renee DiResta for The Atlantic: In the past, propaganda needed human hands to write it. Eager to create the illusion of popularity, authorities in China began hiring people in 2004 to flood online spaces with pro-government comments. By 2016, members… Continue reading

“New Tool to Analyze Political Advertising on Facebook Reveals Massive Discrepancies in Party Spending on Presidential Contest”

September 16, 2020, 5:54 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

NYU: Transparency in political ads is vital to ensuring safe and fair elections, but transparency is difficult if advertisers are not required to disclose details about targeting and sources of funding. While TV broadcasters must disclose information about political… Continue reading

“Pro-Trump youth group enlists teens in secretive campaign likened to a ‘troll farm,’ prompting rebuke by Facebook and Twitter”

September 15, 2020, 5:44 pmcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

Washington Post: One tweet claimed coronavirus numbers were intentionally inflated, adding, “It’s hard to know what to believe.” Another warned, “Don’t trust Dr. Fauci.”A Facebook comment argued that mail-in ballots “will lead to fraud for this election,” while an Instagram… Continue reading

“A bug in Joe Biden’s campaign app gave anyone access to millions of voter files”

September 14, 2020, 2:17 pmcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

Tech Crunch: A privacy bug in Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s official campaign app allowed anyone to look up sensitive voter information on millions of Americans, a security researcher has found.The campaign app, Vote Joe, allows Biden supporters to… Continue reading

“‘This is f—ing crazy’: Florida Latinos swamped by wild conspiracy theories; A flood of disinformation and deceptive claims is damaging Joe Biden in the nation’s biggest swing state.”

September 14, 2020, 1:57 pmcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

Politico: George Soros directs a “deep state” global conspiracy network. A Joe Biden win would put America in control of “Jews and Blacks.” The Democratic nominee has a pedophilia problem.Wild disinformation like this is inundating Spanish-speaking residents of South… Continue reading

Blockbuster BuzzFeed Story: “Facebook Is Turning A Blind Eye To Global Political Manipulation, According To This Explosive Secret Memo”

September 14, 2020, 1:32 pmcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

So troubling: Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world, according to an explosive memo sent by a recently fired Facebook employee and… Continue reading

Today’s Must-Read: Sue Halpern: “How the Trump Campaign’s Mobile App is Collecting Huge Amounts of Voter Data”

September 14, 2020, 8:12 amcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

A wow story in the New Yorker: On its face, Phunware seems like a strange choice to develop the campaign’s app. Before working for President Trump, Phunware’s software was being used in relatively few applications, the most popular being a… Continue reading

“Facebook Need Not Remove ‘Russia State-Controlled Media’ Label from Maffick’s ‘In the Now,’ ‘Waste-Ed,’ and ‘Soapbox’ Pages”

September 8, 2020, 9:12 amcheap speech, UncategorizedRick Hasen

Eugene Volokh blogs.

“Trump and allies ratchet up disinformation efforts in late stage of campaign”

September 6, 2020, 7:38 pmcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo: For President Trump and his allies, it was a week spent spreading doctored and misleading videos.On Aug. 30, the president retweeted footage of a Black man violently pushing a White woman on a subway platform under the caption, “Black… Continue reading

“Russia is working to undermine confidence in voting-by-mail, DHS warns”

September 4, 2020, 7:55 amcheap speech, chicanery, Election MeltdownRick Hasen

WaPo: Russia is seeking “to undermine public trust in the electoral process” by spreading false claims that mail-in-ballots are riddled with fraud and susceptible to manipulation, according to a new intelligence bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security.Many of the… Continue reading

“Trump Campaign Running Photo Ads Edited To Make Joe Biden Appear Older”

September 3, 2020, 7:50 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

HuffPost:President Donald Trump’s campaign launched a series of Facebook ads on Thursday featuring a manipulated photo of his presidential opponent Joe Biden edited to make the former vice president appear older.The ads, which label Biden “Sleepy Joe,” show… Continue reading

“Facebook will limit some advertising in the week before the US election — but it will let politicians run ads with lies”

September 3, 2020, 8:30 amcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

CNN: In an attempt to combat efforts to undermine the US presidential election in November, Facebook on Thursday took several steps it says will address concerns about election interference on its platform.But Facebook will continue to allow politicians to … Continue reading

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