Halloween’s long over, but we still have plenty of dark stories to tell in this pre-election edition of Quick Hits:
- No One Is Buying More Political Ads on Facebook Right Now Than Beto O’Rourke. Lots and lots of fundraising ads out of state, but also plenty of in-state ads, too. Persuasion and GOTV?
- Beto O’Rourke’s Huge Facebook Bet: The candidate has outspent Ted Cruz by roughly $5 million—and every other candidate in the midterms by at least $3 million. Note the infrastructure it takes to create his ads, which usually include short video clips. Though I’d argue that this is no bet; he’s already received the payoff in the form of Facebook-driven donations.
- The Democrats’ Fundraising Edge Is Broadening the Midterm Battlefield.
- Obama Quietly Records Get Out the Vote Calls. Also videos for campaigns to use for GOTV.
- Fabricated Mueller Smear Appears to Have Come From Comically Inept Far-Right Internet Person.
- Twitter Listed a Trending Topic for “Kill All Jews” After a Brooklyn Synagogue Was Vandalized.
- The Pittsburgh Suspect Lived in the Web’s Darkest Corners: Robert Bowers was an avid user of Gab, a social network popular among white nationalists and the alt-right. C.f. From Silicon Valley elite to social media hate: The radicalization that led to Gab.
- The Dilemma of Anti-Semitic Speech Online. C.f. Gab.com goes down after GoDaddy threatens to pull domain and Gab Vanishes, and the Internet Shrugs, via Shaun Dakin.
- Trump’s Culture Warriors Go Home. “Two years ago, Silicon Valley was our friend,†Spencer says, meaning that its technologies provided the tools for his movement to grow. “When that is taken away in one swoop, it’s difficult to recover.â€
- Cesar Sayoc’s Path on Social Media: From Food Photos to Partisan Fury.
- Trump Is the Glue That Binds the Far Right: An analysis of 30,000 Twitter accounts provides a map of online extremists—and reveals that support for Trump is what holds them together.
- Amazing Twitter thread taking down Republican candidate who invited fake Rabbi to speak at Pence visit to Michigan, by a guy who knows her from high school. C.f. That Congressional Candidate Who Hired a Fake Rabbi Sure Has Pissed Off a Lot of Jewish Voters.
- Steve King opponent gets last-second deluge of cash . Turns out, dallying with Austrian Nazis isn’t necessarily a winning strategy. Also note video of King and constituent that went viral.
- How an internet meme became a Trump campaign slogan. The rise of #JobsNotMobs. C.f. The NPC Meme Went Viral When The Media Gave It Oxygen. How a meme spread from 4chan.
- Facebook Let Myanmar Perpetrate Genocide: A Timeline for Horror.
- The Personality Trait That Is Ripping America (and the World) Apart. Hint: antagonism.
- The Next Big Internet Threat. And it is us.
- How Trump’s controversial anti-immigrant video skirts rules for political ads. By not being run as an ad, natch.
- Russian disinformation on Facebook targeted Ukraine well before the 2016 U.S. election. And here we thought we were special.
- How Hate Online Leads to Violence Offline. C.f. Why Fake News on WhatsApp Is So Pernicious in Brazil and How fake news fuels my family’s support for Brazil’s right-wing candidate.
- Fascinating idea: How Disinformation and Conspiracy Culture Are Disenfranchising Young Voters.
- Landing page for a digital attack ad on Tim Kaine.
- How a six-year-old photo of a bleeding policeman is being used to stoke fears about the migrant caravan.
- Facebook’s political ad tool let us buy ads “paid for†by Mike Pence and ISIS, but We Tested Facebook’s Ad Screeners and Some Were Too Strict. C.f. What an anti-Ted Cruz meme page says about Facebook’s political ad policy, via Laura Packard.
- Twitter says it ‘made a mistake’ for not removing threatening tweets from Florida bomb suspect, via Laura Packard.
- There is more phony political news on social media now than in 2016, report says.
- These vulnerable Republicans really don’t want voters to remember they tried to repeal Obamacare. What’s a little website scrubbing among friends, after all.
- Dystopia watch: Amazon met with ICE officials over facial-recognition system that could identify immigrants.
- New Report Says Internet Freedom Has Declined Worldwide, including in the US.
- The Russians didn’t swing the 2016 election to Trump. But Fox News might have.
- A Lawsuit in Manhattan Takes Aim at Kremlin Propaganda Outlets Operating in the U.S.
- Republicans Find a Facebook Workaround: Their Own Apps.
- Coming to your smartphone: Texts with a personal touch from political campaigns.
- Tech-Bro Culture Was Written in the Code. “How computing pioneers at Dartmouth in the 1960s gave rise to the macho tech culture we see today.”
- Why the Google Walkout Should Put Silicon Valley on Notice.
- The GoFundMe Campaigns That Have Raised $840,000 for Christine Blasey Ford Make Me a Little Squeamish.
- Taylor Swift Displays Political, Social Savvy In Latest Bid To Turn Tennessee Blue.
- HRC Equality Votes PAC Launches $520k GOTV Digital Ad Buy in Florida Ahead of Election Day.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Uses Pittsburgh Shooting in GOTV Email.
- Could This Democratic Dark Money Group Fuel a Tea Party of the Left?
- Joe Manchin’s social media accounts hacked, the senator’s office says.
- Political Reality: Buy Ads on Facebook or Risk Losing the Election. Not sure I’d put it quite that bluntly, but the sentiment is appreciated.
- Three tips for last-minute digital videos.
- How to spend your last $10,000 online. C.f. Epolitics.com’s own Quick and Dirty Guide to Digital GOTV.
- The Trailer: Why Michigan’s Senate candidate is asking Trump for an election eve visit. Note section on John James and Twitter.
- Pushing for a ‘youth wave’: Can Democrats channel dissent into action at the ballot box? Note the digital and field work that may make it happen.
- And finally, Older People Are Worse Than Young People at Telling Fact From Opinion. A side effect of web-savviness?
Too much is never enough? Check out previous Quick Hits editions.
– cpd