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My friends, happy Tuesday! Continuing the newly-established tradition, here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop (working title)! Featuring appearances from Steve Bannon, special counsel Jack Smith, and more, here are some of top stories of the week related to politics and tech.
Check it out! And stay tuned for next Tuesday’s drop.
Roger Stone blames robots
On Monday, Mediate published excerpts of what the site claimed was exclusive audio it had obtained of Roger Stone discussing the need to assassinate Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Eric Swalwell before the 2020 election. MSNBC has not verified the existence or details of the audio. When asked for comment, Stone told Mediate the alleged audio was created using artificial intelligence.
Meta moves to protect teens
Meta has announced a new policy for teen users of its apps Facebook and Instagram. Teens users will now default to “the most restrictive content control setting” on both platforms. Meta says this change will restrict teens’ access to sensitive content related to topics like suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders, and make it harder to search for other "age-inappropriate" content, among other changes. The move comes as countries across the globe are grappling with social media’s harmful impact on mental health.
SCOTUS rejects Musk’s motion
The Supreme Court batted down Elon Musk’s request to consider whether X, formerly known as Twitter, can reveal how often federal investigators request user information for national security purposes. Musk, who previously sought to notify Donald Trump about a search warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith for Trump’s Twitter account, argued government restrictions violate free speech.
Let’s get ready to Rumble
Rumble and Gettr, two right-wing media platforms, are both involved in federal investigations. The feds claim Gettr, a social media platform backed by Steve Bannon and federally indicted Chinese dissident Guo Wengui, is part of a fraud scheme perpetuated by Wengui. The Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed it’s investigating conservative-friendly video platform Rumble as well, although the reason remains unknown.
Read more at The Daily Beast. And at Wired.
Loeffler’s return
The former (and fleeting) Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler announced she’s planning to launch a tech company that will offer multiple politics-focused products. The list includes a political donation processing service, an app that links campaigns with volunteers, and a tool that’ll help campaigns reach voters through text messages.
OpenAI is on the attack
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI publicly responded to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by The New York Times with a 1,000-word blog post. OpenAI says the suit is “without merit” and claims it has a “legal right” to train its robots in part using publicly available content published by The Times.
Substack backtrack
Digital newsletter platform Substack announced it has removed a handful of newsletters found to include incitements to violence, a violation of the platform's rules. A chorus of writers had threatened to leave Substack if the company didn’t do a better job policing hate speech.
Dubious disappearances?
Several journalists and liberal figures who use Elon Musk’s X platform were mysteriously suspended this week, although some had their access restored as of Tuesday afternoon. The news is likely to fuel ongoing concerns about Musk’s treatment of journalists and liberals on X.
A top Google tool is gone
The Washington Post recently published a report showing how Jack Smith and police used a Google location tool to unmask Capitol rioters and track their movements on January 6. But Google will no longer store users’ location data in the same way, the outlet reports, making it inaccessible to law enforcement.
Read more at The Washington Post.
And watch my interview with surveillance guru Albert Fox Cahn for more information on the law enforcement tool used to retrieve this data, known as a “geofence warrant”