Happy Wednesday! Here’s your weekly Tech Drop, the top stories I’ve been following at the intersection of politics and technology.
Chesebro’s burner
CNN reported on election-related tweets from 2020 that were posted from an anonymous account belonging to former Trump campaign legal adviser Kenneth Chesebro, and the tweets may add to his legal woes. Chesebro, who helped draw up the Trump campaign’s “fake electors” scheme, promoted election challenges from an anonymous Twitter account, BadgerPundit, his lawyers confirmed to CNN. The Wisconsin native’s tweets, which Talking Points Memo also dug into recently, could show that Chesebro wasn’t completely forthcoming with Michigan investigators when he spoke with them last year and denied using Twitter. Chesebro, who took a plea deal in Donald Trump’s criminal case in Georgia, has not been charged with a crime in Michigan.
Read more at CNN.
Elon v. the experts
A federal judge will hear arguments on Thursday about whether to allow a lawsuit involving Elon Musk and an organization that researches online hate speech to proceed.
Last year, Musk filed a suit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate that alleges the nonprofit’s research into hate speech on Musk’s social media platform, X, cost it millions in advertising revenue. The CCDH, in response, is moving to dismiss the suit, arguing that Musk’s lawsuit is intended to prevent the group’s research. The CCDH has also been targeted by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and other right-wingers who’ve desperately tried to paint online content moderation efforts to root out disinformation and hate as a government-led conspiracy to suppress conservative “free speech.” It’s nonsensical, but Musk has made it a rallying call on the right. If he’s successful in this legal attack, the result may be to silence experts and organizations who specialize in identifying and dispelling disinformation and hate speech online.
Read more in The Washington…
Read the full article here
