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Happy Tuesday! Here’s your weekly Tech Drop, a roundup of the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
Trump’s FTC probes ad agencies for Musk
Elon Musk’s ostensible departure from the White House and its contentious aftermath certainly haven’t stopped the Trump administration from working to further Musk’s commercial interests. The Federal Trade Commission recently demanded documents from some of the world’s largest ad agencies, following on from Musk’s allegations that companies have been engaged in a “boycott” when they chose not to purchase ads on X due to the prevalence of disinformation and hate speech on the platform. (Several major corporations recently asked a judge to dismiss a related lawsuit brought by X.)
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
Meta’s military ambitions
Meta is making a foray into military technology, starting with plans to develop a virtual reality–enabled headset to train U.S. troops. I laid out some glaring security concerns in a recent post that highlights the company’s history of being used by illiberal forces to spread disinformation and promote propaganda linked to violence.
Read more at MSNBC.
MAGA world misinfo
Amid protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s authoritarian, anti-immigration raids, several MAGA world figures, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, spread videos on social media that they falsely claimed depicted the city in a state of chaos. In reality, many of the images they shared don’t come from the protests at all but were either taken at different times or in other countries entirely.
Read more at Meidas Touch.
Top TikToker forced out
Khaby Lame, a TikTok influencer who is reportedly the most followed person on the app, was forced to leave the U.S. after being detained by ICE agents last week. The agency said that Lame had overstayed his visa and was given the opportunity to leave voluntarily.
Read more at MSBNC.
Steve Bannon’s back on Spotify
Far-right influencer Steve Bannon’s podcast, “WarRoom,” has been welcomed back to Spotify. The audio streaming platform removed Bannon’s content in 2020 after he said he’d like to see government officials — like then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and leading immunologist Anthony Fauci — beheaded and their heads put on pikes “at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats.”
“Following its temporary suspension and a constructive dialogue with the show’s team, new ‘Bannon’s WarRoom’ episodes are available on Spotify,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Read more at the New York Post.
Warren’s report highlights alleged corruption
In a report released last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., highlighted more than 100 instances of possible corruption by Musk and other White House officials who appear to have advanced his business interests during his time as a “special government employee.”
A White House official referred to the report as “toothless” in a statement to MSNBC and claimed Musk has done more than Warren to improve Americans’ lives. But the statement didn’t address any specific allegations.
Read more at MSNBC.
University of Michigan backtracks on student surveillance
The University of Michigan says it is ending its contracts with outside vendors that provide plainclothes security, including a technology-focused security company, the Guardian reports. The outlet had previously reported that private investigators had been trailing and recording pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The university said it ended its contract after one of the company’s employees engaged in behavior the school said went “against our values and directives.”
Read more at The Guardian.
Bad DOGE
The Trump administration’s rush to install AI tools across the federal government continues to run into some snags. An artificial intelligence tool developed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has caused some problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs over its tendency to spit out false information.
Read more at ProPublica.
What ‘nonlethal’ really means
A new report in Wired highlights how the term “nonlethal,” used in reference to weapons that are often deployed against protesters, doesn’t give the full picture of how harmful these weapons can be — or the extent to which their use on civilians is frowned upon in other nations.
Read more at Wired.