Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
Trump admin tries to unmask Reddit user
The Trump administration is trying to force Reddit to reveal the identity of a user who criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A recent report from The Intercept spotlighted a monthslong saga in which the administration has sought — in secret court proceedings — to force the social media platform to fork over information to help pinpoint someone whose anti-ICE comments garnered the agency’s attention. The New York Times recently reported the Department of Homeland Security was pressuring social platforms to unmask anti-ICE accounts.
This news also comes as the administration looks to open a “joint mission center” to “proactively” target Americans based on their viewpoints, under the name of combating domestic terrorism. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., warned that the effort could be used to target critics of Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown.
Read more at The Intercept.
Alleged attacker at Altman’s home charged
A man who authorities say warned about humanity’s “impending extinction” as a result of artificial intelligence tools has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home over the weekend. (The suspect’s attorney said Tuesday that his client was suffering from an “acute mental health crisis.”)
Read more at CNBC.
Ashley St. Clair tells all
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair — who has been in a public feud with Elon Musk, who she claims is the father of her child — has gone viral this week with videos that explain how she and other influencers have been offered paid messaging campaigns to help promote MAGA entities.
Read more at Indy100.
Judge pauses Arizona’s Kalshi case
A judge has placed a temporary pause on Arizona’s criminal case against Kalshi, the prediction market platform that has come under fire for allowing certain wagers and for running what Arizona has alleged is an illegal gambling business. Kalshi is fighting the claims.
The pause came after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s chair, Michael Selig, requested that the judge in this case issue a restraining order blocking Arizona from moving forward. Selig has vowed to prevent states from regulating glorified betting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
Read more at Tech Crunch.
TPUSA takes a tumble
Far-right activist group Turning Point USA failed mightily in a local utilities board race in Arizona that garnered national attention, and I wrote about how it could signal an electoral wave of backlash toward conservatives over rising energy costs.
Read more at MS NOW.
Elon Musk enrages MAGA influencers
Musk appears to have undercut more than a few MAGA influencers with his announcement of a new policy for his X platform that is aimed at reining in monetized accounts that push “stolen posts and clickbait.” A number of right-wing influencers are quite upset about the changes, which could cut into their profits.
Read more at The Guardian.
Pro-Iranian propagandists speak out
The BBC spoke to the creators of the viral, Lego-themed propaganda videos that Iran’s government has been using to mock President Donald Trump during his deadly, economically destructive war with Iran.
Read more at the BBC.
AI-enabled terrorism
A recent report from Mother Jones spotlighted the disturbing role that OpenAI’s ChatGPT has played in mass shootings and other violent incidents, underscoring concerns about AI tools and their ability to fuel terrorism or help mete out harm. (OpenAI declined to answer the outlet’s questions about how it handles cases of violence risk.)
Read more at Mother Jones.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.