My friends, happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tech Drop, the top news of the week at the intersection of tech and politics.
Turning Point USA knows how to pick ’em
On Friday, federal authorities arrested Isabella Deluca, a social media influencer with ties to the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA, for her alleged role in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot. My NBC News colleague Ryan Reilly reported Monday that Deluca, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on her social media platforms, also appears to have worked for Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., after participating in the riot (Gosar’s office told the Arizona Mirror it had been unaware of Deluca’s history). Turning Point also emailed the Mirror that it hadn’t previously heard of the charges and that Deluca was “an unpaid volunteer ambassador, one of 200.” (Deluca did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.) Deluca’s arrest and notoriety in the conservative movement are a reminder of Turning Point’s corrosive impact on the Republican Party and of its heavy reliance on social media influencers to spread its far-right messaging. For more on that, read the work of scholar Matthew Boedy, who’s literally writing the book on Turning Point USA and Christian nationalism.
And read more on Deluca’s arrest at NBC News
Peer review
Politico is out with an article this week on the trend among voter suppression artists who, in their purported quest to defend “election integrity,” are bringing lawsuits to obtain voter records and, in many cases, posting those records online. Understandably, some officials are concerned about this tactic being deployed to intimidate voters from showing up at the polls or from casting votes that could result in their harassment. I expect to see more intimidation tactics like this from the right in the months ahead, considering Donald Trump has already told his party that patrolling the vote is more important in the upcoming election than voting itself.
Read more in Politico
Read the full article here
