Step back — this one’s going to be big.
- Republicans warn ‘green wave’ of Democratic cash could overwhelm House GOP candidates. Note the importance of digital infrastructure.
- GOP gloom: Republicans predict House majority will be swept away by Democratic ‘spending tsunami’, as Democrats outraise Republicans in 90 percent of competitive House races during 17-day fundraising period.
- Why false narratives about the migrant caravan and mail bombs won’t go away on social media.
- Hello, President Trump, Let Me Explain Why You’ve Lost Twitter Followers.
- Attacks on Jewish people rising on Instagram and Twitter, researchers say.
- Trump anti-discrimination official faces rebellion at agency over racially tinged blog posts.
- The mail bomb suspect and the right-wing conspiracy machine.
- Analysis: Uptick in Youth Voter Registration Continues in Key Battleground States.
- West Virginia Introduces Blockchain Voting App for Midterm Election. But, West Virginia’s (cell phone) voting experiment stirs security fears.
- GOP ground game focuses on abortion to turn out base.
- Bloomberg-founded gun control group launches [digital] ads to flip 15 GOP House districts.
- YouTubers Will Enter Politics, And The Ones Who Do Are Probably Going To Win. At least in Brazil.
- How Tom Steyer Built the Biggest Political Machine You’ve Never Heard Of.
- The Secretive Organization Quietly Spending Millions on Facebook Political Ads. “Meet the liberal group that’s running a new breed of digital campaign.”
- As CNN evacuates, ‘preprogrammed’ Trump campaign email blasts network.
- Justice Dept. charges Russian woman with interference in midterm elections, overseeing social media and other attacks.
- A Man Charged In Connection With Mueller’s Russian Troll Farm Case Was Sentenced To Six Months In Prison.
- The Moscow Midterms: How Russia could steal our next election. What a successful hack might look like.
- The Trump Campaign Says Exploiting Hacked Emails Is Free Speech.
- Twitter Reportedly Suspends Network of Bots Pushing Pro-Saudi Disinformation on Suspected Khashoggi Murder.
- Myanmar’s Military Said to Be Behind Facebook Campaign That Fueled Genocide.
- Avenatti and ‘Skeezy’ Others Try to Make Their Own Money Off Beto O’Rourke. Not. Cool.
- Chazz Clevinger is Building the Future of Grassroots Politics. At least, according to “Total Prestige” magazine.
- More from Uganda’s protests: If You Charge People to Tweet, They’ll Revolt in the Street.
- A Former Obama Operative Built a New Anti-Republican Attack Machine.
- How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump. “A meticulous analysis of online activity during the 2016 campaign makes a powerful case that targeted cyberattacks by hackers and trolls were decisive.” C.f. A comprehensive account of Russia’s scheming in the 2016 election.
- How Russian Spies Infiltrated Hotel Wi-Fi To Hack Victims Up Close.
- Democrats Tap Startup for Digital Organizing Down the Stretch.
- Snapchat Helped Register Over 400,000 Voters, mostly young.
- Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Democrats is followed by a spike in voter registrations. Well, maybe. C.f. ‘A betrayal beyond words’: The far right melts down over Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Democrats.
- Russian hackers were caught in the act — and the results are devastating. The level of detail is amazing.
- Brett Kavanaugh And The Information Terrorists Trying To Reshape America. The network architecture built in Gamergate helped propel Trump to the presidency and fuel conspiracies like Pizzagate and QAnon. Now it’s backing Brett Kavanaugh.”
- How the Facebook right-wing propaganda machine works.
- Social Media Has Become a Global Battlefield.
- GOP war room blasts endless stream of criticism at Democrats, with Warren its latest target.
- ‘A well-oiled, fully weaponized battle station’: Trump reelection campaign has $100 million head start over Democrats. Also, data-driven.
- Google’s New Tool to Fight Climate Change: The company will begin estimating local carbon pollution from cities around the world.
- Digital Consultants, Data Vendors Navigate Uptick in Targeting.
- This new technology could send American politics into a tailspin. C.f. What’s Your Fake Video Strategy?
- Russian trolls and bots are flooding Twitter with Ford-Kavanaugh disinformation.
- Russia’s low-cost influence strategy finds success in Serbia. Some techniques are right out of the Cold War, a la “The Ugly American.”
- How #HimToo Became The Anti #MeToo Of The Kavanaugh Hearings.
- Susan Collins calls donations to her future opponent a ‘classic quid pro quo’ to extort her.
- What is a Devil’s Triangle? Kavanaugh’s testimony inspires real-time Wikipedia edits.
- Brett Kavanaugh Didn’t Buy His URL. It’s Now A Resource For Sexual Assault Survivors.
- Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign? More on the “interesting” backdoor traffic.
- Rick Gates Solicited Proposal for Online Disinformation Campaign to Help Trump.
- The Pentagon’s Push to Program Soldiers’ Brains. Dude, will they control robots with their minds??
- Why Nobel winner Donna Strickland didn’t have a Wikipedia page.
- Facebook Purged a Ton of Political Spam—From Americans, Not Russians. C.f. Facebook purged over 800 U.S. accounts and pages for pushing political spam. C.f. Facebook Tackles Rising Threat: Americans Aping Russian Schemes to Deceive.
- Azerbaijan’s State-Sponsored Trolls Silence Dissent and Make It Look Like Democracy.
- How Facebook’s Chaotic Push Into Video Cost Hundreds of Journalists Their Jobs. Thanks, Zuck!
- The Daily 202: Technology giants face big test in midterm elections.
- Small-dollar donations explode in the Trump era. Because of digital tech, natch.
- These social canvassing apps might help get Democratic voters off the couch this November. One can hope.
- Susie Bean Breitbart: L.A.’s Secret Power Broker Behind a Right-Wing Media Force.
- ANC agrees to pay website service provider to get back online. When a political party doesn’t pay its bills…
- Disinformation Is Spreading on WhatsApp in India—And It’s Getting Dangerous.
- There’s a New Social Media Site That Just Hurtles Your Life Updates Into the Void. Does a tweet make a sound if no one is there to read it?
- Saudi Leaders Use Troll Farms to Silence Critics.
- Trump Thought ‘Horseface’ Tweet Was Brilliant Politics.
- Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections. I’m sure the results will be graceful and effective….
- Minnesota GOP Senate Contender Compared Michelle Obama To A ‘Chimp’ On Facebook.
- PayPal bans Alex Jones, saying Infowars ‘promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance’.
- Now for Rent: Email Addresses and Phone Numbers for Millions of Trump Supporters. Pimping the Trump campaign list, aw yeah.
- Infamous St. Petersburg ‘Troll Factory’ Set on Fire.
- The One Place Where Oprah Is Running for President: Republican operatives are spending a small fortune on Facebook ads pitting her against Trump.
- White Supremacists Still Have a Safe Space Online: Discord is a hub for 150 million gamers—as well as some of the worst people on the web.
- The point we’re missing about ‘BBQ Becky’ and her sisters.
- An Early 2019 Battleground: State-Based Digital Ad Regulation.
- Hashtag activism: Powerful or pointless? A view from Rwanda.
- The great AI duopoly. The overlooked story of our age?
- The “Female Blackout†Was Not Effective Social Media Activism. It Was a Chain Letter..
- Google overhauls search to show more pictures, videos and context.
- ACLU accuses Facebook of allowing employers to exclude women from seeing jobs ads.
- Christine Blasey Ford Fan Art Is the Only Good Part of the Internet Right Now.
- Just in time for Halloween: Happy October, These Drones Are Full of Blood. Fascinating story from India.
Too much is never enough? Check out previous Quick Hits editions.
– cpd