In this edition: 74 good stories related to digital politics and advocacy. For more on campaigning and advocating during the coronavirus pandemic, see this preview of the upcoming 2020 edition of How to Use the Internet to Change the World – and Win Elections.
- On weekend dedicated to war dead, Trump tweets insults, promotes baseless claims and plays golf.
- MAGA Babe, Hillary Toilet Paper and Al Gore: The Weird World of the Virtual 2020 Campaign. Plus, Kept home by COVID-19, U.S. politics goes virtual with digital dance parties and avatars.
- Thousands of candidates reinventing politics on the fly for the age of pandemic.
- Nearly Half Of The Twitter Accounts Discussing ‘Reopening America’ May Be Bots. C.f. Disinformation, Coronavirus, and the 2020 Presidential Election. A comprehensive report and a set of recommendations.
- Trump And Biden Wage An Uneven Virtual Campaign, How Presidential Candidates Reach Voters Online (including a look at apps), and Sidelined by pandemic, Trump campaign turns to digital shows.
- Biden’s campaign rushes to blunt Trump’s digital advantage. C.f. How Joe Biden Can Defeat Trump From His Basement and What Joe Biden Needs to Do to Beat Trump.
- Biden virtual Tampa rally runs into glitches, awkwardness and blank screens. And, Joe Biden hosted a virtual campaign rally in Tampa. It didn’t go great.
- Biden in the basement: Can campaigning from home work as Trump starts to travel?
- $1.3 Billion And Counting: Where Presidential Ad Campaign Spending Stands Right Now.
- With rallies banned, Joe Biden welcomes voters to another kind of show . C.f. Obama gives Biden his endorsement. He should really give him his lighting, that set and his camera.
- COVID-19 has made the 2020 campaign virtual. That’s a disaster for Biden.
- Why The Uncle Joe-Can’t-Internet Criticism Is Mostly Malarkey. Agreed.
- Can the Trump Campaign Rewrite the Story of the Trump Presidency? “Brad Parscale sees a path to victory through discounted Facebook ads and keeping Trump on TV.”
- Another Round in the Digital ‘Build Vs. Buy’ Debate. More on Biden and Hawkfish.
- No canvassing, no problem: Liberal groups launch letter-writing campaign to reach infrequent voters. With like, stamps and everything. More: How to Canvass During a Pandemic. “Progressive insurgents are reimagining their campaigns thanks to the coronavirus.”
- The Dumbest Aspects of the Apparent Coup Attempt in Venezuela. Pro tip #1: don’t tweet about your invasion when it’s in progress.
- Pro tip #2: Don’t throw your cat during a live-stream.
- I signed up as a Trump supporter, then a Biden supporter. Here’s what happened next. “The result was that Trump campaign content was more involving, and even gripping, something easy to imagine as a cable TV program. Biden campaign content was not. The Democrat is belatedly staffing up to grow his online presence, but the result may look like what I saw this week: two campaigns operating in different realities, in different tones, with their voters consuming information that the other side will never see.”
- Mike Bloomberg plots spending blitz to support Joe Biden’s run for president.
- Lincoln Project takes on Brad Parscale in an episode of GOP Cribs.
- Bernie Sanders, seeking peace with Joe Biden, asks his own delegates to turn down the volume on social media.
- Hillary rakes in millions for Biden via a Zoom fundraiser.
- Biden campaign launches [digital] general election ad in battleground states.
- The Coronavirus Pandemic Moves [Local DC] Activism Online.
- GOP House candidate demeans Muslims and compares Dreamers to pedophiles on Facebook, using the always-believable “someone stole my password” excuse when caught. Meanwhile, Top HHS spokesman repeatedly directed sexually crude and sexist tweets at women and Northern California official ousted after saying [on Facebook] that elderly, ill, homeless should be left to die in pandemic.
- The Coronavirus Becomes a Battle Cry for U.S. Extremists, who are naturally recruiting online.
- ‘Dark money’ networks hide political agendas behind fake news sites. C.f. Target: Colorado. New statewide digital news outlet is launching to cover politics and policy.
- Trump’s ‘LIBERATE MICHIGAN!’ tweets incite insurrection. That’s illegal. C.f. Twitter Could Soon Label Trump’s Tweets as Misleading.
- As Trump signals readiness to break with experts, his online base assails Fauci, but White House denies Trump is considering firing Fauci despite his retweet of a hashtag calling for his ouster.
- The Times Can’t Stop Pretending Trump Is a Normal President. “From a crass tweet, a fantasy of ordinary politics emerges.”
- National Conservatives Coordinated State Lockdown Protests. A whiff of astroturf? C.f. The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping.
- What the People Organizing “Reopen the Businesses” Protests Are Thinking. And saying on Facebook.
- Coronavirus-related Facebook support groups reach 4.5M in US as misinformation and conspiracies [also] spread.
- Facebook will alert people who have interacted with coronavirus ‘misinformation’.
- Matt Drudge draws Trump’s ire, setting off a potentially substantial split between the conservative media power player and the president.
- Facebook agreed to censor posts after Vietnam slowed traffic. Profiles in courage.
- Facebook is quietly helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group to battle Washington.
- ‘In Milk Tea We Trust’: How a Thai-Chinese Meme War Led to a New (Online) Pan-Asia Alliance. “Individual users from across four Asian democracies — some flourishing, some fragile — united against a common, familiar adversary.”
- Organizing During COVID-19: Trends and Victories from Month One.
- Three Tips for Digital Fundraising in the Age of COVID-19.
- Changes in Online Advertising. Trends in digital advocacy ad strategies.
- What Campaigns Should Be Doing On Facebook Now.
- COVID Is Still Hurting Fundraising As Projections For 2020 Spending Rise.
- Who’s raising money in the pandemic, and how?
- Bolsonaro in fresh crisis over son’s alleged links to fake news racket.
- Reddit’s Intriguing Approach to Political Advertising Transparency.
- A woman raised $170,000 for Elizabeth Warren by dangling gossip. The idea caught on. Warren may be out unless veep, but the idea’s fun.
- Fact Check: Trump’s Mother’s Day tweetstorm accusing Obama of crimes.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now playing Animal Crossing. And she’s visiting her followers..
- Is 2020 The Year of the Digital Staffer?
- Investors Look To Boost Democratic Startups With COVID Funding Round.
- 4 Ways To Keep Your Fundraising Program Active During COVID.
- A guide to connected TV and OTT (“Over The Top”) advertising.
- Twitter is testing a feature that limits who can reply to your tweets.
- Someone Flushed a Toilet During the Supreme Court’s Audio Livestream. It’s called a “mute button”.
- And finally, A poem made up of the first lines of emails I’ve received while quarantining.
Too much is never enough? Check out previous Quick Hits editions.
– cpd