My friends, happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of tech and politics.
MAGA movement plotting a tech attack?
Multiple Democrats told Politico they’re concerned about the future of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency if Donald Trump is elected in November.
CISA is a government organization founded during the Trump administration that helps defend the United States against cyberattacks on critical resources. It fights everything from the spread of online disinformation to attacks on water systems.
Republicans have been after the group since 2020, when Trump fired its then-leader, Christopher Krebs, after Krebs refuted Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen. And since taking control of the House, Republicans have tried to argue that CISA’s efforts to stop disinformation amount to anti-conservative censorship (an embarrassing concession, if one stops to think about it). As Politico noted, several Republicans have denounced it and are devising ways to gut the agency should Trump win in November, which could leave the U.S. open to all sorts of nefarious meddling.
Read more at Politico.
Black history reborn
My colleague Zahara Hill just debuted our latest project on The ReidOut Blog, “The Reconstruction.” It’s a celebration of historians who are helping to reconstruct the public memory of Black history, as conservatives try to erase it. Check out Zahara’s intro post and my post on historians using high-tech tools, like virtual and augmented reality, to share Black history in exciting new ways.
Read more at The ReidOut Blog.
FCC robocall ban
The Federal Communications Commission voted to ban the use of robocalls that contain voices generated using artificial intelligence.
The Associated Press reported:
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday outlawed robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence, a decision that sends a clear message that exploiting the…
Read the full article here
