Elections and Media

Facebook’s prioritization of openness and accessibility has made it a target of critics who say it isn't doing enough to stomp out fake news and misinformation. Experts argue Facebook could do a number of things to reduce fake news. But almost every option could hit its bottom line or would challenge CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term vision for the company. The most drastic changes Facebook could make to its policies include removing news from the platform altogether, pre-approving content before letting users post it, and removing all monetization efforts around news.

As the tech industry has grown in power and influence, its politics have moved to the left. When people want to understand Silicon Valley’s political leanings, they often look to CA’s 17th Congressional District. Apple and Intel are headquartered there, as is Tesla’s manufacturing plant. In 2016, the voters of the 17th elected Ro Khanna, a former deputy assistant secretary in Obama’s Commerce Department, to represent them. Based on his 2017 legislative record, GovTrack ranked Rep Khanna the 14th-most-liberal representative in the House.

A Q&A with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The Justice Department plans to alert the public to foreign operations targeting US democracy under a new policy designed to counter hacking and disinformation campaigns such as the one Russia undertook in 2016 to disrupt the presidential election. The government will inform American companies, private organizations and individuals that they are being covertly attacked by foreign actors attempting to affect elections or the political process. “Exposing schemes to the public is an important way to neutralize them,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.

The 2016 presidential election coincided with substantial shifts in the ways that members of Congress communicated with their constituents online. Democrats expressed political opposition nearly five times as much under President Donald Trump as they did during the last two years of Barack Obama’s presidency.

National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone -- the head of the nation’s largest electronic spy agency and the military’s cyberwarfare arm -- has quietly directed the two organizations to coordinate actions to counter potential Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. The move is an attempt to maximize the efforts of the two groups and comes as President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladi­mir Putin was “extremely strong and powerful” in denying Russian involvement in the presidential election two years ago.

Politicians on the left and right are manipulating the news to bolster their election efforts with fake headlines, websites, and articles. Politicians are harnessing internet stories and websites to mislead voters because users are less discerning over what is real and fake online. Media manipulation has always been a part of the political playbook, but technology has enabled politicians to take the practice a step further by changing or mimicking real stories and news outlets to mislead voters.

Longtime John Bolton adviser Mark Groombridge says that Bolton needed billionaire Robert Mercer’s attention and support — so badly, Bolton spent more than $1 million of his John Bolton Super PAC’s money on “comically bad” data from Mercer’s now-defunct voter profiling firm, Cambridge Analytica, which Mercer backed financially.. Mercer pumped $5 million into the John Bolton Super PAC from 2014 to 2017, the largest sum of any single donor.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced new charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton presidential campaign, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Rosenstein said the Russians involved belonged to the military intelligence service GRU. They are accused of a sustained cyberattack against Democratic party targets, including its campaign committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign.