Isaac Stanley-Becker

Inside a private portal from GOP campaigns to local news sites

The top Republican campaigns in Illinois used a private online portal to request stories and shape coverage in a network of media outlets that present themselves as local newspapers. Screenshots show that the password-protected portal, called Lumen, allowed users to pitch stories; provide interview subjects as well as questions; place announcements and submit op-eds to be “published verbatim” in any of about 30 sites that form part of the Illinois-focused media network, called Local Government Information Services.

Biden campaign assails Facebook for 'haggling’ with Trump over his online posts

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign demanded that Facebook prevent misuse of its platform by President Donald Trump to spread “hateful content” and misleading claims about mail-in voting ahead of the November election. The letter, signed by Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, raised particular concern about revelations in a 

Sen Warren Warren issues new disinformation pledge, promising to hold Facebook, Google and Twitter responsible

Democratic presidential candidate Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pledged that her campaign would not share falsehoods or promote fraudulent accounts on social media, part of a new plan to battle back disinformation and hold Facebook, Google and Twitter “responsible” for its spread.

Trump campaign, spending furiously to counter impeachment inquiry, assails Facebook over potential changes to political ad rules

The Trump campaign lashed out at Facebook after company executives said they were considering changes to rules around political ads that could affect the campaign’s ability to target its supporters on the platform. The outcry came as Trump’s reelection team has undertaken a massive spending blitz on Facebook aimed at countering the House’s impeachment inquiry. Trump’s page alone promoted more than $830,000 worth of ads in the seven days ending on Nov 17, according to Facebook’s ad archive.

To guard against hacking, Democrats recommend scrapping tele-caucus

Democratic officials moved to block plans to allow caucusgoers to vote by phone in Iowa and Nevada in 2020 because of concerns the technology could be hacked. An advisory from Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, and the co-chairs of the Rules and Bylaws Committee recommended against the virtual caucus or tele-caucus in the two early-voting states. Internal security and technology analysts, working with a panel of outside experts, found that there was no teleconference system that met security standards, apparently. 

President Trump’s economic adviser: ‘We’re taking a look’ at whether Google searches should be regulated

The Trump administration is “taking a look” at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government, said Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic adviser. “We’ll let you know,” Kudlow said. “We’re taking a look at it.” The announcement puts the search giant squarely in the White House’s crosshairs amid wider allegations against the tech industry that it systematically discriminates against conservatives on social media and other platforms.

Trump speechwriter takes blame for Melania Trump ‘plagiarism’

After a tortured 24 hours in which Donald Trump’s campaign struggled to come up with a coherent explanation for how portions of a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama had reappeared in remarks delivered by Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention, a Trump staff writer said that she was responsible and apologized for the “confusion.” Meredith McIver said she was an “in-house staff writer” who had worked with Melania Trump on the speech. McIver took responsibility for including the passages from the first lady’s speech — though she said she had not revisited the earlier speech herself, only listened as Trump read parts of it that she liked to McIver over the phone. McIver said she had offered her resignation to Donald Trump and his family on July 19, but they declined to accept it. “Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences,” she said.

Shortly before McIver’s statement was distributed by the campaign, Trump himself addressed the controversy on Twitter, though he did not weigh in on allegations that his wife had borrowed language from the first lady’s speech to the Democratic National Convention eight years ago. “Good news is Melania’s speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!” he wrote in one message. And he attempted to shift blame onto his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, writing, “The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania’s speech than the FBI spent on Hillary’s emails.”