Julia Carrie Wong

Aleksandr Kogan, the academic researcher who harvested personal data from Facebook for a political consultancy firm said that the idea the data was useful in swaying voters’ decisions was “science fiction.”

The Trump Administration sought to unmask the identity of an anonymous Twitter account criticizing its policies, according to a lawsuit filed by the social media platform April 6. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), a division of homeland security, issued a summons to Twitter on March 14 seeking records including the phone number, mailing addresses, and IP addresses associated with @ALT_USCIS, an account that purports to convey the views of dissenters within the government.

The account @ALT_USCIS, whose handle refers to the US citizenship and immigration services, is one of dozens of “alternative” Twitter accounts established following the inauguration of Donald Trump. These alternative accounts claim to provide the uncensored view of civil servants dissenting from Trump’s policies, but they are generally anonymous and unverifiable. The government’s attempt to break that anonymity was revealed when Twitter filed suit in federal court seeking to block the summons, citing the first amendment.

The tech industry has long had a substantial rightwing streak. And outside of the spotlight, a cadre of powerful and well-connected industry figures with ties to Peter Thiel and some of tech’s most prominent companies are embedding themselves in the Trump administration.

Thiel’s unusual support for Trump’s candidacy made him seem like the loneliest man in Silicon Valley during the 2016 campaign, but like any industry that accumulates massive amounts of capital in the hands of a select few, tech has its fair share of old-school Republicans. But none of them embraced Trump’s brand of conservatism the way Thiel did, and now the idiosyncratic billionaire is poised to exert significant influence on the government.

Controversial Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel will be a member of Donald Trump’s transition team, the campaign has confirmed. Thiel’s involvement in a Trump Administration has been the subject of frenzied speculation in Silicon Valley, where the businessman was the sole prominent advocate for the divisive Republican candidate. Thiel said that he would not move to Washington or seek a seat on the supreme court, but said: “I’ll try to help the president in any way I can.” It is not known what role Thiel will play in the transition team. It is likely that he will be expected to help the president-elect build bridges with Silicon Valley, a place where President Barack Obama is hugely popular and where many people regard President-elect Trump with either distrust or outright disdain.