“The apocalypse that wasn’t: AI was everywhere in 2024’s elections, but deepfakes and misinformation were only part of the picture”
Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders expand the frame in The Conversation.
Category Archives: cheap speech
“TikTok’s Romanian reckoning”
The Politico subhead: “Regulators suspect foul play in how far-right firebrand Călin Georgescu used the Chinese-owned app to sway voters.”
“Donald Trump’s return sends shivers through the anti-misinformation world”
Financial Times:
The incoming Trump administration’s vow to dismantle the leftwing “censorship cartel” has thrown a shadow over the cottage industry of academics, non-profits and researchers that sprang up to combat a tide of digital misinformation — and threatens… Continue reading
“Nearly 40% of young Americans get their news from influencers. Many of them lean to the right, study finds”
CNN: A new PEW study of 10,658 Americans finds one-fifth of US adults ‘regularly’ receive their news from online ‘news influencers.’ But 37% of young adults aged 18 to 29 do. “A clear majority of news influencers are men… Continue reading
“Liberals Are Left Out in the Cold as Social Media Veers Right”
Sheera Frenkel for the NYT:
After Donald J. Trump won the election this month, his supporters gravitated to a panoply of online destinations to celebrate.
Hundreds of thousands of posts lauding Mr. Trump’s victory filled Truth Social, the social… Continue reading
New Report Find X’s Algorithms Changed in July 2024 to Boost Republican-Leaning Accounts and Elon Musk’s Account After Musk’s Trump Endorsement
The report from Timothy Graham and Mark Andrejevic (via Bluesky). Abstract:
This technical report presents findings from a two-phase analysis investigating potential algorithmic bias in engagement metrics on X (formerly Twitter) by examining Elon Musk’s account against a group… Continue reading
“Elon Musk Is Positioning X Behind the New Trump Presidency”
NYT:
Since Donald J. Trump won the presidential election, Elon Musk has gone all in on X to promote the incoming administration.
Mr. Musk, who owns X, posted on the platform about politics more than 400 times between Tuesday and… Continue reading
“Musk to Spend Election Night With Trump; Elon Musk has spent $119 million on a super PAC supporting Donald Trump and held events on his behalf. But his ownership of X is especially valuable.”
NYT:
Elon Musk plans to spend election night with former President Donald J. Trump, giving Mr. Trump direct access to the person controlling one of key information platforms on what could be a chaotic evening….
Mr. Musk is joining the… Continue reading
“Elon Musk promotes video referencing QAnon in support of Trump”
WaPo:
Elon Musk shared a video in support of Donald Trump that appeared to includereferences to the extremistQAnon ideology and footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, elevating the radicalized movement on the eveningbefore millions… Continue reading
“A pro-Trump influencer says a Russian agent paid him $100 to post a fake voter fraud video. It wasn’t the first time”
CNN:
An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. The payment was one of several the man said… Continue reading
“Scoop: Meta to extend block on new election ads”
Axios:
Meta will extend its ban on new election ads for the week leading up to the election until several days after the polls close, Axios has learned. The tech giant informed advertising partners about the shift on Monday.
Why… Continue reading
“Elon Musk’s misleading election claims have been viewed more than 2 billion times on X, analysis finds”
Marshall Cohen for CNN:
In the run up to the high-stakes 2024 presidential election, Elon Musk has posted a blizzard of false and misleading claims about the election on his social media platform that have generated more than two billion… Continue reading
“Efforts to combat disinformation in retreat as voters head to the polls”
WaPo:
During the chaos after the 2020 election, tech companies erected unprecedented defenses to prevent misinformation from spreading on their platforms.
Twitter’s Trust and Safety team added fact-checking labels to false claims about the election and blocked some of then-President… Continue reading
“Russia behind video claiming election fraud in Georgia, intelligence officials say”
AJC:
A video circulating on social media claiming that people from Haiti voted illegally in Georgia is “targeted disinformation” meant to create doubt in the election, said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“This is false, and is an example… Continue reading