Category Archives: social media and social protests
“How Gridlock, Social Media Giants and the Clintons Made the Internet Ripe for Russian Meddling”
Daily Beast:
The co-authors of McCain-Feingold’s House companion bill, Reps. Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA), were not pleased. They sued the FEC in part due to that omission, and successfully invalidated 15 FEC regulations. In response, the commission… Continue reading
“Roy Moore’s Senate campaign blames Democrats for fake Twitter followers”
Weigel:
Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, gained then lost thousands of apparently fake Twitter followers in the space of a few hours — a situation that his campaign blamed on Democrats.
“We highly doubt that reporters… Continue reading
“Facebook, Google and Twitter face proposed bill targeting shadowy political ads”
WaPo:
Democratic lawmakers are pushing for new legislation that would require greater disclosure of political ads that run on Internet platforms, despite a pledge by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg that the company will voluntarily pull back the curtain on… Continue reading
“Exclusive: Russians Appear to Use Facebook to Push Trump Rallies in 17 U.S. Cities”
Daily Beast:
Suspected Russia propagandists on Facebook tried to organize more than a dozen pro-Trump rallies in Florida during last year’s election, The Daily Beast has learned.
The demonstrations—at least one of which was promoted online by local pro-Trump activists—… Continue reading
George Will on Hasen on Volokh on Cheap Speech
New syndicated George Will column:
Volokh anticipated today’s a la carte world of instant, inexpensive electronic distributions of only such content as pleases particular individuals. In 1995, he said that “letting a user configure his own mix of materials” can… Continue reading
“Trump Is Using Targeted Facebook Ads To Reassure Supporters He Will Build The Border Wall”
BuzzFeed:
The personal Facebook page of Vice President Mike Pence is also running a version of the ad. One difference between the Pence and Trump ads is the VP’s refers to “Fake News media,” while Trump’s calls out the “mainstream… Continue reading
“Elite Political Ignorance: Law, Data, and the Representation of (Mis)Perceived Electorates”
Chris Elmendorf and Abby Wood have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
It is common to think of political elites—candidates, legislators, party officials, and campaign advisers—as specialists in learning the preferences of voters. But recent studies find… Continue reading
“Facebook to launch ‘election integrity initiative’ to prevent meddling of votes, ahead of Canadian elections”
“Facebook still doesn’t know the extent of Russian ad buys in election”
CNN:
How extensive was Russia’s use of Facebook to meddle with the presidential election? Even Facebook doesn’t know.
One week after it told the country that it had sold $100,000 worth of ads to a Russian troll farm during… Continue reading
“There’s Blood In The Water In Silicon Valley; The bad new politics of big tech”
Today’s must-read from Ben Smith.
“Speech in America is fast, cheap and out of control”
I have written this oped for Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Opinion section. It begins:
The Internet and social media did not create white supremacist movements in the United States, such as the hate groups that rallied in Charlottesville, Va.,… Continue reading
“How Social Media Helped Organize and Radicalize America’s White Supremacists”
Pacific Standard interviewed me about my new “cheap speech” paper.
“Cheap Speech and What It Has Done (to American Democracy)”
I have written this draft for SSRN (forthcoming, in the First Amendment Law Review’s symposium on “Distorting the News: ‘Fake News’ and Free Speech“). Here is the abstract:
In a remarkably prescient article in a 1995 Yale Law… Continue reading