What I’m Reading - 10/27/24

Enjoy this beautiful Fall weather

Hello, from a McDonald’s parking lot somewhere in southern Virginia. I’m going to North Carolina to see a friend I haven’t met in person yet, who is having a Halloween party. About an hour into the drive, I realized that I hadn’t queued up this newsletter yet, and I didn’t want to forget! The Fall colors on this drive from DC are absolutely beautiful, and it’s one of those picturesque Fall days. I’m even wearing a fun Fall hat.

I’m catching up on all my podcats during this drive including listening to Trump on Joe Rogan and Harris on Call Her Daddy on this drive. I’m so obsessed about how the media landscape has shifted with this campaign. I remember last year telling people to pay attention to podcasts and I got some skeptical looks. 

With Election Day rapidly approaching I’m spending a lot of my time walking people through what might happen after people vote and Inauguration Day. If you are interested in hearing more I’m doing a webinar with the Aspen Institute on Monday about the 5 Post-Election Moments to Watch For.

Have a great Sunday!

What I’m Reading

AI Developments

1. Anthropic: European Parliament Revolutionizes Archive Access with Claude AI 

2. Axios: Scoop: Meta strikes multi-year AI deal with Reuters 

Stories About Specific Countries

1. The Hill: Georgian government officials raid American think tank staff members’ homes

2. Microsoft On the Issues: As the U.S. election nears, Russia, Iran and China step up influence efforts 

3. DFRLab: Bolsonaro supporters launch X campaign before temporary ban, accusing Brazil of censorship

4. TikTok Newsroom: Digital Services Act: Publishing our third transparency report on content moderation in Europe 

Political & Social Commentary

1. Journalism Courses | Knight Center: Content Creators and Journalists: Redefining News and Credibility in the Digital Age 

2. National Intelligence Council: Foreign Threats to US Elections After Voting Ends in 2024 

3. The New York Times: Trump vs. Harris: The 2024 Election Has Taken Over TikTok 

4. Google: Find voting information on Google Search and Maps 

5. DC Journal: A Banner Against Technology Is Not Good Politics 

6. Abundance Institute: Working Paper: Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, and the Politics of Anti-technology 

7. Roll Call: Elon Musk sweeps members of Congress into his social media sway 

8. CNN Politics: How Republicans pushed social media companies to stop fighting election misinformation 

9. POLITICO: He Runs Fox News’ Decision Desk. Here’s How He Sees Election Night Coming 

10. CBS News: This Wisconsin county may signal 2024 presidential election outcome

11. Semafor: How Donald Trump’s campaign sees the media 

12. Axios: Joe Rogan to interview Trump on his podcast 

13. Vox: All the Harris and Trump podcast interviews, from Joe Rogan to Call Her Daddy  

14. CNN: How organizations and campaigns are trying to break through on TikTok to reach young voters

15. USA Today: Exclusive poll: How many voters are Donald Trump and Kamala Harris reaching on podcasts? 

16. The Guardians: Elon Musk’s pro-Trump Pac pouring millions into Facebook ads instead of X 

17. Council on Foreign Relations: Foreign Influence and Democratic Governance 

18. Oversight Board: Summary Decision on Satirical Harris-Walz Image Highlights Risk of Political Speech Being Suppressed Ahead of Elections 

19. WIRED: Microsoft Warns Foreign Disinformation Is Hitting the US Election From All Directions 

20. Time Magazine: Your Vote Is Safe 

21. Axios: Most U.S. counties have little to no local news sources 

22. Northwestern Local News Initiative: The State of Local News 2024 

23. The White House: FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Outlines Coordinated Approach to Harness Power of AI for U.S. National Security 

    The New York Times: Harris and Trump Campaigns Zero In on Podcasts 

24. CNN: Political fundraisers WinRed and ActBlue are taking millions of dollars in donations from elderly dementia patients to fuel their campaigns 

25. Puck: Playbook’s New Playbook, Post-Nuzzigate

26. 404 Media: Chinese T-Shirt Maker Flooded Facebook with Ads Promising to Donate Money to Harris, Trump, SuperPACs 

27. Wired Politics Lab: Influencers get their final marching orders for the election

28. Bloomberg: Elon Musk Is Now X’s Biggest Promoter of Anti-Immigrant Conspiracies 

29. The Rundown: Election Interference and Information Integrity: a Newsroom Blueprint 

30. Michigan Ross: New Study on Reddit Explores How Political Bias in Content Moderation Feeds Echo Chambers 

31. The New York Times: How a Pro-Trump Army Built a Movement to Reject Elections 

32. DFR Lab: Georgia’s ruling party using Facebook ads to claim Western interference in the country’s election 

33. Keyboards for Kamala: Friends of mine have an app to help you share pro-Harris messages if you are so inclined and looking for something you can do from home!

Legal & Regulatory

1. Aspen Institute: Aspen Policy Academy 

2. Techie Ray: Global AI Regulation Tracker 

Miscellaneous Insights & Reports

1. Status: A Q&A with Semafor founders Ben and Justin Smith on the outlet's second birthday 

2. Inc: Laid Off From Big Tech? Here Come the Rebounder Founders 

3. LunchBox: Why I Left the L.A. Times 

4. Morning Consult: Video Podcasts’ Popularity Continues to Grow 

5. Back Row by Amy Odell: Media Industry to Repeat History 

Company Announcements

1. DFRLab: DFRLab launches the 2024 Foreign Interference Attribution Tracker 

2. OpenAI: OpenAI’s approach to AI and national security 

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