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You are here: Home / Archives for Technology

Facebook Bans Trump for Remainder of His Term

January 7, 2021 at 10:56 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Facebook will block President Trump from posting on its platform for the remainder of his term, CNBC reports.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the “risks of allowing the President” to continue using the social media platform “are simply too great.”

Casey Newton: It’s time to deplatform Trump.

Filed Under: Technology

Twitter Set to Restore Trump’s Account

January 7, 2021 at 9:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Twitter is set to restore access to President Trump’s account on Thursday morning, twelve hours after the tech giant blocked him for blasting out a series of falsehoods as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol,” the Washington Post reports.

Filed Under: Technology

New Brexit Deal Refers to Decades-Old Software

December 30, 2020 at 9:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“References to decades-old computer software are included in the new Brexit agreement, including a description of Netscape Communicator and Mozilla Mail as being ‘modern’ services,” the BBC reports.

“Experts believe officials must have copied and pasted chunks of text from old legislation into the document.”

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, Technology

Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine

December 28, 2020 at 12:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Adrienne LaFrance: “People tend to complain about Facebook as if something recently curdled. There’s a notion that the social web was once useful, or at least that it could have been good, if only we had pulled a few levers: some moderation and fact-checking here, a bit of regulation there, perhaps a federal antitrust lawsuit.”

“But that’s far too sunny and shortsighted a view. Today’s social networks, Facebook chief among them, were built to encourage the things that make them so harmful. It is in their very architecture.”

Filed Under: Technology

Facebook Will Face Greater Scrutiny Under Biden

December 26, 2020 at 10:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Facebook endured a deluge of political scrutiny in Donald Trump’s Washington. It’s poised to face even worse in the Joe Biden era,” Politico reports.

“From lawmakers on Capitol Hill to antitrust enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission, Washington is training its sights on the world’s largest social network like never before. Biden’s antitrust enforcers will take ownership of a lawsuit the FTC filed this month threatening to dismantle the sprawling company. And his staff will negotiate legislative proposals with congressional leaders who have hammered Facebook for mishandling its users’ personal data and spreading hate speech and dangerous falsehoods.”

Filed Under: Technology

White House Twitter Accounts Will Be Reset to Zero

December 22, 2020 at 8:25 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Twitter has told President-elect Joe Biden’s team that President Trump’s followers will not carry over to the official accounts assigned to the new president and White House in January, a reversal from the last transition,” Bloomberg reports.

“The move would mean the Biden administration’s accounts will start with zero followers, cutting off a way for Biden to instantly reach millions of people who currently follow the official accounts used by Trump. The @POTUS account has more than 33 million followers while @WhiteHouse has 26 million.”

Filed Under: Biden Transition, Technology

Russian Hackers Targeted Top Officials at Treasury

December 21, 2020 at 9:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Russian hackers who penetrated United States government agencies broke into the email system used by the Treasury Department’s most senior leadership, the first detail of how deeply Moscow burrowed into the Trump administration’s networks,” the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, Technology

Bill Trump Will Veto Strengthens Hacking Defenses

December 18, 2020 at 3:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The military spending bill that President Trump is threatening to veto contains provisions that would help protect against the kind of broad Russian hacking discovered in recent days, according to experts and lawmakers,” the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: Technology

Microsoft Found Malicious Software In Its Systems

December 18, 2020 at 9:30 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it found malicious software in its systems related to a massive hacking campaign disclosed by U.S. officials this week, adding a top technology target to a growing list of attacked government agencies,” Reuters reports.

“Microsoft also had its own products leveraged to attack victims, said people familiar with the matter. The U.S. National Security Agency issued a rare ‘cybersecurity advisory’ Thursday detailing how certain Microsoft Azure cloud services may have been compromised by hackers and directing users to lock down their systems.”

Filed Under: Technology

Feds Find Evidence of New Hacking Techniques

December 17, 2020 at 1:55 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Federal investigators reported Thursday on evidence of previously unknown tactics for penetrating government computer networks, a development that underscores the disastrous reach of Russia’s recent intrusions and the logistical nightmare facing federal officials trying to purge intruders from key systems,” the Washington Post reports.

Filed Under: Technology

Twitter Could Ban Trump After Inauguration Day

December 15, 2020 at 1:05 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump, who currently enjoys certain exemptions from Twitter’s policies due to his status as a world leader, will likely lose the protection after 20 January when Joe Biden takes over as the US president,” The Independent reports.

“Mr Trump’s personal account on Twitter could be subject to a ban if he continues to spread conspiracy theories, Twitter has confirmed.”

Filed Under: Technology

Twitter Limits Interactions with Trump Tweets

December 12, 2020 at 10:26 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Twitter on Saturday prevented users from liking and replying to a series of tweets from President Trump in which he repeated false claims that he won the election and that the race was ‘stolen’ from him,” The Hill reports.

Filed Under: Technology, White House

Key People Are Leaving Facebook

December 11, 2020 at 3:31 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

BuzzFeed News: “Since May, a number of Facebook employees have quit, saying they were ashamed of the impact the company was having on the world or worried that the company’s inaction in moderating hate and misinformation had led to political interference, division, and bloodshed. Others have been fired for documenting instances of preferential treatment of influential conservative pages that repeatedly spread false information.”

“But in just the past few weeks, at least four people involved in critical integrity work related to reducing violence and incitement, crafting policy to reduce hate speech, and tracking content that breaks Facebook’s rules have left the company. In farewell posts obtained by BuzzFeed News, each person expressed concerns about the company’s approach to handling US political content and hate speech, and called out Facebook leadership for its unwillingness to be more proactive about reducing hate, incitement, and false content.”

Filed Under: Technology

US, States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed Competition

December 9, 2020 at 3:26 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states accused Facebook on Wednesday of becoming a social media monopoly by buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, and said the deals that turned the social network into a behemoth should be unwound,” the New York Times reports.

“Federal and state regulators, who have been investigating the company for over 18 months, said in separate lawsuits that Facebook’s purchases, especially Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion two years later, eliminated competition that could have one day challenged the company’s dominance.”

Filed Under: Technology

Trump’s Twitter Account Is In Jeopardy

December 9, 2020 at 12:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“After Joe Biden is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump’s 11-year, anti-establishment, conspiracy-fueled salvos on Twitter could come to a screeching halt for repeatedly violating the platform’s content rules,” Adweek reports.

“Twitter, which has committed to more stringent rules against peddling misinformation this year, like labeling rule-breaking tweets, has repeatedly slapped Trump on the wrist for his behavior. But unlike normal platform abusers, the company has refused to banish Trump outright because, well, he’s the president. Twitter’s ‘World Leaders’ policy was codified last year and treats some rule-breaking tweets as newsworthy. But that designation will no longer protect Trump once he’s a former president.”

Filed Under: Technology, Trump Legacy

Top U.S. Cybersecurity Firm Hacked

December 8, 2020 at 4:36 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “FireEye revealed on Tuesday that its own systems were pierced by what it called ‘a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities.’ The company said hackers used ‘novel techniques’ to make off with its own tool kit, which could be useful in mounting new attacks around the world.”

“It was a stunning theft, akin to bank robbers who, having cleaned out local vaults, then turned around and stole the F.B.I.’s investigative tools. In fact, FireEye said on Tuesday, moments after the stock market closed, that it had called in the F.B.I.”

Key detail: “The hack raises the possibility that Russian intelligence agencies saw an advantage in mounting the attack while American attention — including FireEye’s — was focused on securing the presidential election system.”

Filed Under: Technology

Trump Accuses Twitter of Manipulating Trending Tweets

November 27, 2020 at 10:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump railed against Twitter in late night tweets, criticizing its trends algorithm and blaming what he called “big Conservative discrimination.”

Filed Under: Technology

What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers

November 24, 2020 at 2:20 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Charlie Warzel: “In mid-October I asked two people I’d never met to give me their Facebook account passwords for three weeks leading up to and after Election Day. I wanted to immerse myself in the feeds of a type of person who has become a trope of sorts in our national discussion about politics and disinformation: baby boomers with an attachment to polarizing social media.”

“I went looking for older Americans — not full-blown conspiracy theorists, trolls or partisan activists — whose news consumption has increased sharply in the last few years on Facebook. Neither of the two people I settled on described themselves as partisans. Both used to identify as conservatives slowly drifting leftward until Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party offered a final push. Both voted for Joe Biden this year in part because of his promise to reach across the aisle. Both bemoaned the toxicity of our current politics.”

The Information: Facebook researchers found company’s “political whitelist” influenced misinformation spread.

Filed Under: Media Buzz, Technology

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

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