My friends, happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tech Drop, a weekly list of the hottest stories at the intersection of politics and technology.
Bots and Biden
New Hampshire’s attorney general has linked two Texas-based companies to dubious robocalls in which a voice sounding like President Joe Biden’s discouraged Democrats from participating in New Hampshire’s presidential primary. Attorney General John Formella said Tuesday that a criminal investigation is underway and that the calls possibly represent the first known attempt to use artificial intelligence to interfere with an election in the U.S.
Read more at The Associated Press.
Stopping spies
The Biden administration has announced a new policy that will allow the State Department to ban people from entering the U.S. if they’ve been found to use commercial spyware to crack down on dissent. The policy says a visa can be restricted if someone has used such tools to surveil or harass journalists, activists, dissidents and members of marginalized communities, among others.
Read the State Department’s announcement here.
Trumped-up claims
Check out this thread from Walter M. Kimbrough, a former president of Dillard University, on the use of AI-generated misinformation to try to persuade Black people to vote for Trump:
AI ain’t the Be All! Short 🧵. I saw this post like many of folks telling us what Trump did for HBCUs. I like to ask folks to share their source. She did. 1/ pic.twitter.com/nxywDmG5Sw
— Walter M. Kimbrough (@HipHopPrez) February 5, 2024
This wouldn’t be the first time that AI has been used to portray Trump or his movement as friendly to Black voters. And it won’t be the last.
Read more at X.
Meta’s misinformation problem
Meta’s Oversight Board said it agreed with the social media giant’s decision to allow a doctored video of Biden, designed to make him look like he inappropriately touched one of his granddaughters, to remain on Facebook.
Facebook and the Oversight Board, which Meta pays to review the company’s conduct, claim that although the video was edited, it doesn’t violate Meta’s guidelines because Biden’s speech wasn’t altered. But the board also criticized Meta’s policies around manipulated media for being “incoherent” and “confusing.”
Read more at The Washington Post.
No help for Yelp
A federal judge is allowing Texas to proceed with a lawsuit against Yelp after officials at the review site warned users about limited medical services provided by some crisis pregnancy centers. Such centers, which are often linked to conservative groups, typically offer counseling to try to dissuade women from seeking abortions.
Read more at Reuters.
The Apple of your eye?
Apple has released its Vision Pro headset, a high-powered virtual reality headset with a $3,500 price tag. It’s seen as a step up from the Meta Quest 3 headset — though it’s about seven times as expensive. We’ve already seen some funny videos of people using the Apple headsets in public. And some frightening videos, as well.
As you prep for this age of VR headsets, keep in mind (pun intended) how VR can affect your brain.
Read more at Vox.
Musk reheats conspiracy theory
Elon Musk used his social media platform, X, to yet again spread the conspiracy theory that Democrats are deliberately allowing migrants to enter the country to improve the party’s electoral chances. The “replacement theory,” as it’s called, has been espoused by avowed white nationalists and multiple mass shooters.
Read more at Forbes.
Sorry, not (that) sorry
The Senate held a hearing about social media’s impact on youth last week. One of the most memorable exchanges came via Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who bizarrely questioned TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is Singaporean, about his citizenship and whether he has personal ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Also noteworthy? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to families with children who died by suicide or faced mental health issues after using Facebook or Instagram — but wouldn’t agree to set up a compensation fund for the families. So he’s sorry. Just not that sorry.
Read more at Ars Technica.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.