What a roller coaster of a week! The Duco team went to Stinson Beach for a three-day retreat this week. It was a beautiful location. In addition to some work, we also got to visit the fine folks at Point Reyes Farmstead for some cheese and the McEvoy Ranch for olive oil. All of it was coordinated by Food and Farm Tours. Everything was lovely, even if I did have to hear a few digs about how happy cows come from California. (If you wonder why this marketing campaign from the early 2000s still needles us from Wisconsin, watch one of the ads here.)
Team Duco!
Back in the real world, plenty was happening. Meta had a few announcements about labeling AI and not recommending political content in Threads that stirred that hornet’s nest again. I felt right back in the middle of it again as I was getting input from all sides, and it started triggering my fight-or-flight response. I started in the fight posture with a few folks and then tried to back down a bit as I realized I was getting too caught up in it. At times, I felt like I was arguing/defending multiple positions. A close friend called out how typical it is of me to say that I see both sides, and while I know this wasn’t the person’s intent it landed as criticism versus something I usually see as a strength. It made me start to think about how I balance that, but I also don’t want to seem wishy-washy and unable to make a decision. It’s something that’s sticking with me this weekend.
I’m going to write about this more on Wednesday. I was going to do a deeper dive into the tech company announcements on elections, but I think I might push that to instead talk about how various platforms determine when something is political or not. Spoilers alert: It is hard - especially when anything can become political.
There was also a pretty cool win this week. The European Union released its draft guidance for companies on elections, and it pulls from the best practices guides we put together at the Integrity Institute. We’re cited throughout their doc.
I also talked to the Guardian about what’s ahead for social media companies in this year of elections and talked to the CyberScoop Safe Mode podcast. PBS NewsHour Weekend had me on about the same topic.
Have a great rest of your weekend, and good luck to any of you with teams in the Super Bowl!
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What I’m Reading
AI and Elections
NPR: AI fakes raise election risks as lawmakers and tech companies scramble to catch up
Brookings: Assessing the impact of generative AI and other online threats in a historic election year
PBS: FCC bans AI-generated voices in robocalls that can deceive voters
U.S. Department of Commerce: Biden-Harris Administration Announces First-Ever Consortium Dedicated to AI Safety
Reuters: Generative AI may change elections this year. Indonesia shows how
TechPolicy.Press: Study Suggests We Should Worry About Political Microtargeting Powered by Generative AI
Politico: ‘An arms race forever' as AI outpaces election law
Nextgov: How Congress is gearing up to take advantage of generative AI
404 Media: An Instant Fake ID Factory
Out of Contro: The Intellect of Things
New York Times: Dark Corners of the Web Offer a Glimpse at A.I.’s Nefarious Future
U.S. Elections
Washington Post: California lawmakers aim to regulate AI
Politico: An Algorithm to Stop Democratic Donors From Wasting Their Money
New Yorker: Can the Internet Be Governed?
Lawfare: The Aftermath: #StormTheCapitol
Tech and Media
New York Times: Joe Rogan Renews at Spotify, but Will No Longer Be Exclusive
Morning Consult: TikTok Is Becoming a Major News Source For Its Users
Economist: The rise of the TikTok news anchor
New York Times: How X Is Trying to Win Over Influencers
Columbia Journalism Review: Artificial Intelligence in the News: How AI Retools, Rationalizes, and Reshapes Journalism and the Public Arena
Business Insider: Why Hollywood should be terrified of YouTube, not Netflix
New York Magazine: Over Three Decades, Tech Obliterated Media
Axios: Exclusive — Dow Jones CEO: "Not going to be a lifestyle company"
New York Times: New York Times Co. Adds 300,000 Digital Subscribers in Quarter
Pew Research: Many Americans find value in getting news on social media, but concerns about inaccuracy have risen
European Union
European Commission: Commission is gathering views on draft DSA guidelines for election integrity
Council for Media Services: DSA Transparency reports - Briefing
Politico EU: Meta, TikTok take EU to court over online content rulebook
Politico EU: This time, the far-right threat is real
mySociety: Improving the register of MPs interests
Around the Globe
New York Times: Bolsonaro and Allies Planned a Coup, Brazil Police Say
Rest of World: Like, subscribe, and vote: India's 2024 elections depend on YouTube
Reuters: Mexican leak of journalists' personal data raises security worries
Journal of Democracy: The Demise of Senegalese Democracy
Foreign Policy: Disinformation Isn’t Just a Problem for Elections
The News Pakistan: The net must go on
Progress in Political Economy: On Southern Authoritarian Populism
National Endowment for Democracy: Winning the Battle of Ideas: Exposing Global Authoritarian Narratives and Revitalizing Democratic Principles
Online Platforms
Oversight Board: Altered Video of President Biden
Oversight Board: Oversight Board Announces Cases Involving the Australian Electoral Commission’s Voting Rules
Axios: First look: Meta won't recommend political content on Threads
Washington Post: Meta turns its back on politics again, angering some news creators
Meta: Labeling AI-Generated Images on Facebook, Instagram and Threads
Meta: Program against false information towards the 2024 elections in Mexico/Presentamos programa contra la información falsa rumbo a las elecciones de 2024 en México
France24: Meta removes Instagram, Facebook accounts of Iran's Khamenei
Microsoft: Iran accelerates cyber ops against Israel from chaotic start
Microsoft: Here’s how we’re working with journalists to create the newsrooms of the future with AI
Roblox: Breaking Down Language Barriers with a Multilingual Translation Model
Bloomberg: TikTok CEO Pledges $2 Billion to Protect 170 Million US Users
Washington Post: TikTok removes feature that critics used to study Israel-Gaza war videos
Bloomberg: Midjourney Weighs Banning Trump, Biden Images Before US Election
Community.inc: Kickstarting Community at: Substack
Semafor: What Medium's Tony Stubblebine has learned about tech and journalism
New York Times: Hard Fork: Bluesky’s Big Bet, and Are Deals Dead in Silicon Valley?
Bloomberg: How Jack Dorsey’s Plan for Elon Musk to Save Twitter Failed
Civil Society/Academia
Designing Tomorrow: Alone together? How social technology is influencing human connection and loneliness
Lusine Digitale: 20 years of Facebook: how the social network has shaped our relationships with information and politics/20 ans de Facebook : comment le réseau social a modelé nos rapports à l'information et à la politique
Integrity Institute: How We Helped with the Senate Hearing on Child Safety Online
Entertainment
Rolling Stone: Tracy Chapman's Grammys Appearance Was the Event of the Night. Here's How It Happened
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.