A look at the various media used to reach and inform voters during elections -- as well as the impact of new media and media ownership on elections.
Elections and Media
Social media platforms are being accused of being at the root of a host of social ills: fake news, depression, political polarization, addiction, and other maladies. To test these assertions, Allcott and his team has been tracking the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Recently, they ran a large-scale randomized experiment in which we paid Facebook users to deactivate their accounts in the four weeks before the 2018 midterm elections. Professor Allcott will present results from these studies and other related work.
How to influence campaigns: Take inexperienced staffers, stir in a small amount of money
Democratic group Priorities USA is trying to improve the way Democrats compete digitally in elections. In addition to spending about $50 million on digital ads this cycle, the group ran experiments behind the scenes to create a new playbook for liberal groups as they rush to catch up with GOP advantages online. The goal was to bridge the gap with Republican campaigns, which have spent a higher percentage of their election money online in recent cycles.
Facebook Fallout Ruptures Democrats’ Longtime Alliance With Silicon Valley
The alliance between Democrats and Silicon Valley has buckled and bent amid revelations that platforms like Facebook and Twitter allowed hateful speech, Russian propaganda and conservative-leaning “fake news” to flourish. But those tensions burst into open warfare after revelations that Facebook executives had withheld evidence of Russian activity on the platform for far longer than previously disclosed, while employing a Republican-linked opposition research firm to discredit critics and the billionaire George Soros, a major Democratic Party patron.
Russia wants DNC’s election-hacking lawsuit thrown out
The Russian government is arguing that a federal court should dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee alleging that Moscow’s military spies, the Trump campaign, and the WikiLeaks organization conspired to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump. In a letter and statement to the State Department and a judge in the Southern District of New York, Russia’s Ministry of Justice argued that the United States’ Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act protects the Russian government from such lawsuits.
From Midterms to What?
The midterms just completed (except for recounts) were historically important, and in this critical time for our democracy, we must try to make some sense of where we are. The bad news is split government; the good news is split government.
Russian Hackers Largely Skipped the Midterms, and No One Really Knows Why
After unleashing widespread cyberattacks and disinformation warfare on the US during the 2016 presidential election, Russia’s trolls and hackers mostly appeared to have sat on the sidelines during the campaign ahead of the midterm elections. No one is sure why. Several factors may have reduced Moscow’s impact. Clint Watts, a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the diffuse nature of congressional and state races makes them a harder target than a single presidential election.
Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs, Violating Campaign Finance Laws
As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request. 'What can you do to help my campaign?' he asked, apparently. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Trump. Less than a year later, Trump asked Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model who said they’d had an affair.
The Trump Midterm: Looking at the 116th Congress
Tuesday, Nov 6 was Election Day in the United States. At the national level, Republicans kept control of the US Senate, while Democrats won enough seats to win control of the US House of Representatives. At Headlines, we keep a close eye on two key Congressional committees because of their jurisdiction over many telecommunications issues and oversight of the Federal Communications Commission: 1) the Senate Commerce Committee and 2) the House Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee. What did we learn about the new Congress?
Tech policy and the midterm elections: Did our assessment prove true?
My report “Tech Policy and the Midterm Elections” examined the role of tech policy in the election and whether the issue of net neutrality would encourage millennials to vote.
Agenda for the 116th Congress: Bring Back Consumer Protection and a Fair Marketplace
There is a new political reality in Washington. A Democratic Party takeover of the House of Representatives has created divided government again. We can only hope that the newly divided government can create the space for clear action to meet our challenges. Both parties are now truly responsible for governing, and although many of the moderates have retired or been defeated, the needs for protection-creating policymaking is felt equally in the most conservative and liberal districts. There’s also hope that the influx of new members brings a class of younger, tech-savvy legislators.