Sixty-six excellent stories about digital politics, advocacy and bad behavior.
- Russia’s Pro-Trump Disinformation Campaign Used Every Major Social Media Platform. C.f. How Russia Hacked U.S. Politics With Instagram Marketing.
- Congress Now Has a Very Full, Very Ugly Picture of How Russia Targeted Black Americans, as Russian Trolls and the Trump Campaign Both Tried to Depress Black Turnout.
- New Senate Reports Are an Indictment of the White House’s Inaction on Disinformation, and Trump silent on Russian efforts to influence African Americans, millennials and other left-leaning groups.
- When Is a Meme a Foreign-Influence Operation? “All of which should make the next step for Russian operatives obvious: Simply create a consulting business and do exactly what they did before, but this time with a profit motive.” C.f What Russia Learned About Black Voters From America and How Russian Trolls Used Meme Warfare To Divide America.
- Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say.
- Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate.
- Russian Election-Troll Strategy Included an Anti-Masturbation Hotline. Tragedy turns to farce — and data-collection.
- How YouTube Built a Radicalization Machine for the Far-Right. Meanwhile, YouTube’s Search Results for “Abortion†Show Exactly What Anti-Abortion Activists Want Women to See.
- Study Finds Twitter Is Bad If You’re a Woman and Worse If You’re a Woman of Color.
- Chats Show FIU Turning Point USA Members Sharing Racist Memes and Rape Jokes.
- Facebook Can’t Explain the Difference Between Its PR Operation and Russian Troll Farms, and The Facebook scandal isn’t really about social media. It’s about capitalism.
- Michael Cohen’s Cellphone Was Reportedly Near Prague at Time of Alleged Russia Meeting, and Trump Accidentally Exposes the Location, Identities of U.S. Navy Seal Team 5 on Twitter. Who’s not great at operational security? These guys.
- The MAGA-Only Dating App Is Exactly What You Think It Is: Hate Masquerading as Love, and a Subscription to a Urologist.
- Trump’s tweets on children dying in U.S. custody are a new low. But probably not the lowest we’ll see.
- FEC Green-Lights Use Of Campaign Funds For Personal Cybersecurity. Good idea, and c.f. Cybersecurity Experts: Latest Attack Reveals Need For Stronger Industry-Wide Protocols.
- The Political Act of Blaming Someone for a Cyberattack.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s new favorite pastime appears to be trolling conservative critics. #Hero.
- Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics. So mind-bogglingly stupid — if this had been discovered before the election, the news might have swung it to Moore. Not surprisingly, Facebook suspends five accounts, including that of a social media researcher, for misleading tactics in Alabama election
- Disinformation campaign targeting Roy Moore’s Senate bid may have violated law, Alabama attorney general says, as Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for funding a group tied to disinformation in Alabama race.
- The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules, including a big digital component.
- It’s not a trade war with China. It’s a tech war.
- Sudan has blocked Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to counter anti-govt protests.
- To Curb Ghost Workers and Coffee Corruption, Africa Turns to Blockchain.
- Paul Bremer, Former Iraq Czar, is Utterly Confused How He Became an Internet Meme. As are we all.
- ‘Oh, no’: The day Trump learned to tweet. And the world died a little inside.
- YOU’LL BE OUTRAGED AT HOW EASY IT WAS TO GET YOU TO CLICK ON THIS HEADLINE . On the psychology of clickbait.
- Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content. Fake it before you make it, baby. C.f. Everything on Social Media Is for Sale. Welcome to the age of micro-monetization.
- Secret groups of Democratic women are organizing deep in Republican territory.
- Why your AI might be racist.
- Someone’s Raised Nearly $1M on GoFundMe to Build Trump’s Border Wall, Because of Course. C.f. What a Border-Wall GoFundMe Campaign Says About America. But, Founder of viral fundraiser for Trump’s border wall has questionable news past.
- People may not know it yet, but Iowa and New Hampshire won’t matter in 2020. “It’s this simple—the candidates who will be competitive are those who can build mass movements behind them. I’m talking strong social media presence, email list in the millions, and the ability to rally tens of thousands of people instantaneously.” Also, The Case for Beto O’Rourke.
- Russian Agents Sought Secret US Treasury Records On Clinton Backers During 2016 Campaign. And a lot more people too, including Kremlin opponents. Espionage, agency turf wars, mismanagement, whistle-blowing…this story has it all.
- The Biggest Tech Lies of 2018.
- How Much Can Relational Organizing Boost Turnout in Down Ballot Races? A Lot!.
- John Postill on his new book, The Rise of Nerd Politics.
- The IRS wants to use social media to catch tax cheats. Time to stop posting those yacht photos, kids.
- Seven Ways To Reach Voters Online.
- Mission Unaccomplished: The Tweet that Upended Trump’s Counterterrorism and Iran Policies.
- Inside Facebook’s Secret Rulebook for Global Political Speech. Exactly the well-oiled machine you’d expect.
- What the California Wildfires Can Teach Us About Data Sharing.
- How a Guy With a Camera Outsmarted the United States. “It’s no longer spy versus spy. It’s spy versus tweeter, plane spotter, criminal, activist, bored person on the internet, and who knows who else.”
- Don’t Shut Down the Internet’s Biggest Jihadist Archive. “Jihadology.net is a valuable resource for researchers, even if terrorists make use of it too.”
- Civil Discourse Exists in This Small Corner of the Internet.
- How Becoming an Activist Made Me a Better Consultant.
- Enhancing Your Digital Advocacy The Right Way.
- Navigating a Visit from Year-End Fundraisers.
- Why European Campaigns Should Invest In Social Media Listening.
- 2019 Visual Trends to be Aware of [Infographic].
- Republicans Kept Embarrassing Themselves While Trying to Get Google’s CEO to Admit the Company Was Biased Against Conservatives. At least they didn’t talk about a series of tubes
- How Donald Trump appeals to men secretly insecure about their manhood, as revealed by Google search data.
- And finally: A Nude Selfie’ Is Part of Muller’s Evidence. We truly live in glorious times.
Too much is never enough? Check out previous Quick Hits editions.
– cpd