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“Just weeks after its launch, the pro-Trump social network GETTR is inundated with terrorist propaganda spread by supporters of Islamic State,” Politico reports.
“The rapid proliferation of such material is placing GETTR in the awkward position of providing a safe haven for jihadi extremists online as it attempts to establish itself as a free speech MAGA-alternative to sites like Facebook and Twitter.”
Associated Press: “The department said 80% of Microsoft email accounts used by employees in the four U.S. attorney offices in New York were breached. All told, the Justice Department said 27 U.S. Attorney offices had at least one employee’s email account compromised during the SolarWinds hacking campaign.”
“Some anti-vaccination groups on Facebook are changing their names to euphemisms like ‘Dance Party’ or ‘Dinner Party,’ and using code words to fit those themes in order to skirt bans from Facebook, as the company attempts to crack down on misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines,” NBC News reports.
“The groups, which are largely private and unsearchable but retain large user bases accrued during the years Facebook permitted anti-vaccination content, also swap out language to fit the new themes and provide code legends.”
“President Biden announced Tuesday he is nominating Jonathan Kanter, a known legal foe of Google and other major tech companies, to head the Department of Justice’s antitrust division,” Recode reports.
“If confirmed to his post by the Senate, Kanter will have the power to take on cases to break up Big Tech companies or otherwise limit the size of their businesses. And as head of the DOJ antitrust division, Kanter would also decide how to proceed with the Trump administration’s landmark case against Google for engaging in allegedly anti-competitive business practices.”
Twitter said on Monday that it was suspending Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from its service for 12 hours after she posted messages that violated its policy against sharing misleading information about the coronavirus, the New York Times reports,
“President Joe Biden said that disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines on Facebook harms those who believe it, walking back his accusation last week that social media giants are ‘killing people’ by allowing the posts, Bloomberg reports.
Said Biden: “Facebook isn’t killing people These 12 people who are out there giving misinformation, anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it, it’s killing people.”
“The Biden administration on Monday is expected to formally accuse the Chinese government of breaching Microsoft email systems used by many of the world’s largest companies, governments and military contractors,” the New York Times reports,
“The United States is also set to organize a broad group of allies, including all NATO members, to condemn Beijing for cyberattacks around the world.”
CNN: U.S. blames China for cyberattacks.
“Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the Washington Post reports.
“The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people,” The Guardian reports.
These 12 online personalities “have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact.”
Daily Beast: “The pro-Trump internet went wild on Wednesday for the Freedom Phone, a $500 smartphone that comes stocked with conservative apps and promises to liberate anyone else who buys it from Silicon Valley censorship.”
“Despite being lauded by some of the right-wing media’s leading figures, though, the Freedom Phone’s buyers could be getting less than they expect for its $500 price tag. That’s because the Freedom Phone appears to be merely a more expensive rebranding of a budget Chinese phone available elsewhere for a fraction of the Freedom Phone’s price.”
“Just days after President Biden called President Vladimir Putin of Russia and demanded that he act to shut down ransomware groups that are attacking American targets, the biggest of them has gone off-line,” the New York Times reports.
“The mystery is who made that happen.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted businesses to rapidly digitize their operations, leading to a surge in productivity in the United States,” Reuters reports.
“Since the health crisis began, annualized growth in output per hour has risen 3.1%, a big jump from the 1.4% growth recorded in the previous business cycle.”
Out this week: An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination.
“It turns out that while the tech giant was connecting the world, they were also mishandling users’ data, spreading fake news, and amplifying dangerous, polarizing hate speech.”
The computer code behind the massive ransomware attack by the Russian-speaking hacking ring REvil was written so that the malware avoids systems that primarily use Russian or related languages, NBC News reports.
Former President Donald Trump, who has complained about censorship by social media giants, plans to announce class action lawsuits today against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Axios reports.
“Russian government hackers breached the computer systems of the Republican National Committee last week, around the time a Russia-linked criminal group unleashed a massive ransomware attack,” Bloomberg reports.
“It’s not known what data the hackers viewed or stole, if anything. An RNC spokesman on Tuesday denied its systems were breached.”
“Pentagon officials on Tuesday canceled the JEDI cloud-computing project—which has been mired in litigation from Amazon.com Inc. and criticism from lawmakers—and said it would start anew with a revised cloud project,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Reuters: “A social media site launched on Sunday by Jason Miller, a senior adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump, was briefly hacked, and more than 500,000 people have registered to use the site.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.