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Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, a collection of the past week’s top stories at the intersection of technology and politics.
Trump turns CISA upside down
Donald Trump is known for peddling conspiracy theories about election security, yet his administration has cut funding for two key cybersecurity initiatives, including one focused on election security. On Monday, The Associated Press reported the Trump administration slashed millions of dollars for two initiatives, the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. Both initiatives are part of the nonprofit Center for Internet Security.
The AP highlighted the potential ramifications:
The activities no longer being funded include cyber threat intelligence, cyber incident response and engaging with state and local government officials. In a statement, the agency said ending the funding will help ‘focus CISA’s work on mission critical areas, and eliminate redundancies.’
Trump and the GOP have had the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in their crosshairs since 2020, when Trump fired its former director, Chris Krebs, who debunked election conspiracy theories Trump was spreading at the time.
Trump has made several moves at CISA in his second term that have raised eyebrows. His Department of Homeland Security secretary said earlier this year that CISA shouldn’t focus on thwarting foreign misinformation efforts that target Americans. Meanwhile, a recent CBS article highlighted worries among lawmakers and federal employees about the dire consequences of gutting CISA, including the recent firing of a top employee responsible for overseeing defense against cyberattacks on critical infrastructure like water pipelines and electrical grids.
And this week, Trump reportedly nominated Sean Plankey, a cybersecurity professional from his previous administration, to be CISA’s new director.
CBP One adds a self-deportation feature
The Trump administration has repurposed CBP One, an app originally created to help migrants file asylum requests, into an app to aid his mass deportation plans. USA Today has a report on the administration’s addition of a new feature on the app that it says will allow people to “declare their intent to voluntarily depart, offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences.”
Censorship hits anti-sexual assault groups
An NBC News report shines a light on how the Trump administration’s censorship efforts are affecting groups that combat sexual violence. The report found multiple groups have scrubbed references to transgender people from their websites, fearing their federal funding might be cut due the administration’s anti-trans policies and its targeting of science grants for organizations that use keywords like “sex,” “trauma” and “gender.”
Read more at NBC News.
Whistleblower alleges censorship at Facebook
A former Meta employee’s whistleblower complaint, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, claims Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, went to extreme lengths to censor users around a decade ago, as the company (then known as Facebook) sought to appease the Chinese government in a bid to expand into the country. In a statement to right-wing outlet Newsmax, a Meta spokesperson dismissed the allegations, claiming they’re being “pushed by an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance.”
Read more at The Washington Post.
Mike Johnson’s new gospel
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been preaching the gospel of Elon Musk. I recently examined Johnson’s disturbing tendency to tout Musk’s algorithms — and their purported infallibility — as the primary deciders of what government programs should be allowed to exist.
Give my blog a read here.
Trump allies target Google
The federal government has Google in its investigatory crosshairs. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Jordan previously targeted YouTube, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, in an effort to portray social media companies as biased against Republicans. Last week he issued a subpoena to Alphabet, alleging its content moderation efforts run afoul of “free expression” — which Alphabet, as a private company, has no legal obligation to support on its platforms.
At the same time, Trump’s attack dog at the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, said he is investigating a conservative outlet’s claim that YouTubeTV’s decision not to carry its programming amounts to faith-based “discrimination.”
Read more on Carr’s probe at Deadline.
Brazil upholds Rumble ruling
A majority on Brazil’s Supreme Court voted last week to uphold an earlier ruling that bans video platform Rumble, which is popular among far-right influencers, for failing to comply with court orders.
Read more at Reuters.