What I'm Reading - 10/15/23

The relationship between news and online platforms gets more complicated

I’m having my favorite kind of weekend. After six weeks of nonstop go, go, go, I finally have a bit of a chance to breathe. It’s rainy here on the shore, and after I write this newsletter, I plan to read and watch football. I need to finish

Taylor Lorenz

’s book “Extremely Online” and Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk book. I’m very much enjoying Taylor’s. The Musk book is a bit harder to get through.

Speaking of Musk, check out the new Frontline documentary about his takeover of Twitter. The documentary goes up to the end of September, so it’s up to date. It interviews folks like Yoel Roth, Renee DiResta, Nina Jankowicz, and Kara Swisher. They also talk to Matt Taibbi, who wrote on many of the Twitter files, and Congressman Jim Jordan. I appreciated how Frontline pushed all these folks to react to their critics. Though Taibbi and Jordan’s answers left a lot to be desired. (Not surprisingly.)

I also thank all of you for giving me the space and time to think about my posting schedule for the newsletter and the podcast. Last week felt really weird for me not to be doing what I had been doing, so right now, I’m not going to change anything. Writing this right now is bringing me so much joy that I missed out on by skipping my usually scheduled programming. (Though I love the piece

Daniel Kreiss

and I put out, in case you missed it.) Part of the reason I was panicking was if I would have enough podcast material, but I now have four interviews in the hopper, with another two being taped this week. So, I think I’m good for a bit. 🙂

This leads me to my last thing before we get to the links. This week's big topic has been how X/Twitter isn’t the same as it once was for breaking news. Much of this has been focused on the conflict in Israel, but the Speaker’s race is worth looking at, too. Jake Sherman from Punchbowl News has been invaluable on Twitter to get the latest on what is happening with the House GOP conference.

However, many journalists have been discussing whether Threads should become the new place for the community that was once on Twitter, and boy, are they split. And Adam Mosseri continues to say that they won’t amplify news. I’ve been thinking about it all week, and on the drive out here listened to podcasts by Alex Kantrowitz and Casey Newton/Kevin Roose. I also listened to Ben Thompson’s thoughts on his Sharp Tech podcast.

Part of what’s been gnawing at me is this Morning Consult poll showing that people like Facebook more now that they are deprioritizing politics and news. I get it, but I worry about what it means in the long term if people stop paying attention to the news or what is happening politically. Or should I just get over myself that my old employer is never getting back together with politics and news and be okay that new platforms like

Substack

might fill the gap? 

I wrote a bunch more after this, but I want to save it for Wednesday. I bring this all up because I’m curious - where do you stand? What other perspectives should I be taking into account? All of this is intertwined, from what was discussed in the Frontline documentary to this question of online platforms and news. Feel free to reply, leave a comment, or do a quick vote in this poll.

BTW, if you are wondering what in the world bad idea jeans are, watch this.

Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.

Newsletter of the Week - Campaigns and Elections

If you want to keep up with how campaigns use technology like AI, look no further than

Campaigns & Elections

. They are doing a phenomenal job of providing the political consultant's point of view as we consider new rules for things like AI in political ads. For instance, this past week, they looked at how consultants would love to use AI to create imagery that is hard to find, such as a wide-shot image of a farmer in a field where you could see the farmer’s back. However, the consultant isn’t sure if that would be allowed under the proposed regulations not allowing AI in these ads. I highly recommend subscribing.

What I’m Reading

1. Washington Post: How Twitter lost its place as the global town square 

2. Bloomberg: Hamas War Shows Facebook, Twitter Have Pivoted From News

3. The Atlantic: The Israel-Hamas War Shows Just How Broken Social Media Has Become 

4. Nieman Reports: Six Months Ago NPR Left Twitter. The Effects Have Been Negligible 

5. Washington Post: Hamas vows to broadcast hostage executions. Tech firms can't stop them. 

6. Politico Tech: How Hamas used social media to amplify its attack on Israel

7. Wired: The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation 

8. DFR Lab: In Israel-Hamas conflict, social media becomes tools of propaganda and disinformation

9. Bloomberg: TikTok Videos of Israel-Palestine Conflict Show New Role for the Platform 

10. Twitter: Response to EU’s letter on how they are handling Israel-Hamas war content

11. Meta: Meta’s Ongoing Efforts Regarding the Israel-Hamas War 

12. Huffington Post: Disinformation Experts Change Tactics For 2024 Election

13. New York Times: ‘A.I. Obama’ and Fake Newscasters: How A.I. Audio Is Swarming TikTok

14. Wired: An Alleged Deepfake of UK Opposition Leader Keir Starmer Shows the Dangers of Fake Audio 

15. Tech Policy Press: What You Need to Know About Generative AI's Emerging Role in Political Campaigns 

16. Public Affairs Council: Americans Worried about Honesty and Openness of 2024 Elections

17. Axios: Getting ahead of AI-driven election misinfo

18. Axios: AI, social media threaten democracies with misinformation flood 

19. Politico: Lawmakers shift gears on TikTok ban

20. Meta Oversight Board: Oversight Board announces two cases: Altered Video of President Biden and Weapons Post Linked to Sudan’s Conflict 

21. Meta: Altered Video of President Biden 

22. Knight Columbia: Six Things About Jawboning 

23. Doomsday Scenario
    : The Wildest Month of the US Presidency, Part I (Spoiler alert - It’s not this month or this year. It’s October 1973)

24. Philanthropy: Want to Fund a Healthy Democracy? Stop Focusing on Partisan Politics. 

25. Japan News: Japan Seeking G7 Agreement on AI Development Guidelines, Kishida Announces at Internet Governance Forum 

26. NPR: Guatemalans protest attempts to overturn the results of presidential election 

27. Rest of World: 40 global technology companies beating their Western rivals

28. CNN: Australians vote No in referendum that promised change for First Nations people but couldn’t deliver

29. New York Times: New Zealand Elects Its Most Conservative Government in Decades

30. Reuters: Southeast Asia eyes hands-off AI rules, defying EU ambitions

31. Wired: The UN Risks Normalizing Internet Censorship

32. Michael Geist: Canada plans to regulate search and social media use of artificial intelligence for content moderation and discoverability

33. Euractiv: Tired of Disinformation, Some EU Politicians Dream of Bluer Skies

34. Meta: Safety and Integrity Quarterly Roundup - Q4 2023 Edition

35. OpenAI: OpenAI Technology Explained

36. OpenAI: OpenAI Red Teaming Network 

37. Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h with Jenny Blake
    : The Suspense is Terrible

    Another line that's been sticking with me all week? "I might say I want financial security, but maybe what I really want is to protect my creative flame, even at a cost."

38. Washington Post: How much did Taylor Swift actually make from the Eras Tour? 

39. New York Times: My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom

Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.