Jim Jordan's war on disinformation experts is working as planned

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Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the week’s top stories at the intersection of politics and the wide world of technology, which includes everything from digital news to music and video games. Disinfo dangers on the rise? The conservative movement’s war on efforts to protect Americans from disinformation campaigns by intimidating experts who specialize in identifying disinformation appears to be working. Led at the congressional level by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, right-wingers opposed to anti-disinformation efforts have seen a streak of success in recent weeks. At the start of this month, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the United States is less prepared to fight election interference today than it was four years ago, in part because of U.S. lawmakers’ willingness to traffic in disinformation themselves. And last week, Stanford University announced it’s shuttering the Stanford Internet Observatory, which had come under fire from right-wingers, including Jordan, for its reports on misinformation. Elsewhere, media watchdog Media Matters laid off several members of its staff in late May, a move linked in part to defending itself against a defamation lawsuit filed by billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X (the outlet has called the suit "frivolous" and said that it stands behind its reporting). Read more at Platformer. 'Cheapfakes' galore Writer Brian Beutler offers an obvious but necessary explanation for Republicans’ use of dubiously edited videos, sometimes known as “cheapfakes,” that are designed to make President Joe Biden look feeble or disoriented: Republicans would not be doing this if they were confident in their candidate or his campaign. Read more at Beutler's newsletter. Same, Obama Former President Barack Obama recently chatted with a group of social media content creators about the Biden administration and the 2024 election. I found his criticisms of the present state of the news media and social media extremely relatable to me as a critic of both. He told the group of young creators to use their powers for good, saying “we live in a cynical time,” that he understands why some people have turned away from political pundits, and that he mostly watches sports because a lot of the political discourse is “slash and burn.” Read more at The Hill. Film fears New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg published an article about the challenge of getting U.S. distribution that faces “The Apprentice,” the new film about Donald Trump's early years in New York real estate. Goldberg’s post points particularly to Trump’s personal vendettas as president and suggests that U.S. film distributors are fearful of retribution from Trump if he’s elected again. Read more at The New York Times. Shark drones “Shark drones” sounds like the premise of a film tucked away on a streaming platform you forgot you’ve been paying for, but it’s real. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul touted the use of drones as a safety measure to prevent shark attacks on Long Island. These drones, which have also been deployed in Australia, show how emerging tech — particularly artificial intelligence tools — can be used to improve public safety. No labels… yet U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy thinks Congress should pass a bill requiring social media companies to include warning labels, similar to those on tobacco products, on social media platforms. In a New York Times op-ed, Murthy said a label is one of several things lawmakers can and should do to promote awareness about social media’s potentially harmful effects, which experts have been discussing for years. I happen to agree that we need a cultural shift toward greater scrutiny of social media platforms. A warning label could be a helpful step. Read Murthy's op-ed here. The Holy See on AI Speaking at the G7 summit of nations, Pope Francis addressed the rising popularity of artificial intelligence and encouraged nations to ensure it remains focused on humanity. “We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it,” the Pope said. The Vatican’s journey into the ethics of A.I. continues. Read more at the Associated Press. Is ICE’s app effective? Critics of SmartLINK, an app used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to track undocumented immigrants seeking asylum, have highlighted its invasiveness. Now a new CBS News report suggests that ICE can’t say with certainty how necessary or effective the SmartLINK app is at ensuring undocumented people comply with the asylum process, if only because migrants are already highly incentivized to comply with the requirements. One expert told CBS, "Expanding access to legal representation and other kinds of legal support could serve the same purpose." Read CBS News' report here.