4 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 17

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Tags: usa, politics, recurring.weekly

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

2 comments

  1. cmccabe
    Link
    Mr Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data...

    Mr Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data
    https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/politics/mike-lindell-2020-election/index.html

    My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, according to a decision by the arbitration panel obtained by CNN.

    Lindell, a purveyor of election conspiracies, vowed to award the multimillion-dollar sum to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data. An arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman, who has decades in software development experience, a $5 million payout on Wednesday after he sued Lindell over the sum.

    “Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeidman performed under the contract,” the arbitration panel wrote in its decision. “He proved the data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recover.”

    In a brief phone interview with CNN, Lindell said “this will end up in court” and slammed the media and professed the need to get rid of electronic voting machines.

    4 votes
  2. cmccabe
    Link
    Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That's over now https://www.npr.org/2023/04/21/1171193551/twitter-once-muzzled-russian-and-chinese-state-propaganda-thats-over-now

    Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That's over now
    https://www.npr.org/2023/04/21/1171193551/twitter-once-muzzled-russian-and-chinese-state-propaganda-thats-over-now

    "This whole episode shows what happens when we cede public debate to tech companies," said Alyssa Kann, who works for the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab and reviewed the government accounts.

    "When we have the public square in what is effectively one man's private billionaire playground, I think things like this can happen," she said.

    When NPR emailed Twitter for comment for this story, the company replied with its usual response to reporters—a poop emoji. Ella Irwin, Twitter's vice president of product for trust and safety, didn't respond to a request for comment.

    Along with revoking the visibility filtering for government accounts, Twitter has also stopped its previous practice of letting researchers and developers freely access its data through a tool known as API. That means it's far more difficult for watchdogs to keep checks on the spread of government propaganda on the platform.

    "All news is to some degree propaganda," Musk responded. "Let people decide for themselves."

    2 votes