Happy Tuesday! Here's Tuesday's Tech Drop, the week's top stories about the intersection of technology and politics.
Trump becomes a crypto brother... for selfish reasons
donald trump He was booed during his speech at the Libertarian Party National Convention weekend. But he earned some applause when he promised that on day one he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving multiple life sentences for running โSilk Road,โ a website that operated as a black market for drugs and other illicit goods.
Ulbricht, a major promoter of cryptocurrencieshas become a cause cรฉlรจbre among libertarian crypto bros.
Trump, who as president "I wasn't a fan" of cryptocurrencies, has more recently tried to curry favor with the pro-cryptocurrency crowd by falsely portraying the The Biden administration as anti-crypto. The former president's support for Ulbricht reeks of hypocrisy, given that Trump has said that drug traffickers deserves the death penalty and has made the assumption illegal drug trafficking by immigrants an important topic of conversation in the electoral campaign.
Trump's adoption of cryptocurrencies could also be motivated by self-interest, as he announced last week that his campaign will accept cryptocurrency donations.
The Fontes deepfake
During Sundayโs episode of โMeet the Press,โ Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes showed off the deepfake below as a terrifying example of what artificial intelligence can do to manipulate and misinform voters this election cycle. .
Swab problems
The Los Angeles Times published a report on the increase in DNA samples collected from immigrants in the United States over the past four years. The rapid increase raises questions about whether immigrants' privacy rights are being violated and for what purpose.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.
Diversity matters
Ohio Democratic Rep. Shontel Brown and Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens recently introduced a bill designed to increase access to cybersecurity jobs for people from disadvantaged communities, including racial minorities, women, and people with disabilities. In an era where Cyberattacks target US infrastructure and foreign governments are carrying out disinformation campaigns intended to sow division, people in those groups have vital knowledge that can maintain all Safe, tamper-free Americans.
Read more at Cyberscoop.
Uvalde Liability Lawsuit
Families of victims killed in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting are suing video game company Activision, Meta (the parent company of Instagram), and rifle maker Daniel Defense, alleging that all three companies played a role in the โpreparationโ of the gunman behind the massacre. It is the most recent of Several attempts to hold media platforms accountable for his alleged role in fueling extremist violence.
Read more in The New York Times.
The most dangerous influencers on TikTok
TikTok published its first report on efforts to remove โcovert influence operationsโ from its platform that sought to influence political opinions in nations around the world, and managed to find 15 of them. One of the campaigns was designed to nudge Americans toward a favorable view of the Chinese government, while another attempted to sway Americans toward a favorable view of the Iranian government.
Read more at NBC News.
Why the Media Matters layoffs matter
Facing a lawsuit from Elon Musk, media watchdog Media Matters announced last week that it had fired several members of its staff to remain โsustainableโ amid a โmulti-pronged legal attack.โ The move should not be taken lightly. There is a right-wing war in people who specialize in research disinformation and hate speech. If conservatives succeed, there will be fewer voices willing or able to reject efforts to manipulate the public.
Read more in The Freedom of the Press Foundation.
AI incompetence
It looks like Google's AI search tool could use some serious work. Former Obama administration staffer turned podcaster Tommy Vietor shared a screenshot showing the platform returned a response identifying former President Barack Obama as the first (and only) Muslim president of the United States.
NBC News also reported on the phenomenon, only to be told by a Google spokesperson that "the examples we've seen are generally very rare queries and are not representative of most people's experience using Search." Additionally, Google "conducted extensive testing before launching this new experience to ensure AI overviews meet our high quality standard."
No matter how much testing you have done, it is easy to see how abject racism can, with the help of algorithms, make its way into artificial intelligence tools.
Russia's drawdown in 2016
A new Washington Post article details Russia's campaign to spread election-related disinformation in Europe to influence elections on the continent this year. And the Post warns that the Kremlin's tactics, including social media propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, will further target the United States. in the coming months. Stay awake: the Kremlin is Looking for a repeat of 2016.
Read more in The Washington Post.
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