Hey, everyone! It’s Makena. I’m back after a charming getaway to the Adirondacks. A lot has happened since I’ve been gone. Namely, what the heck is happening with Joe Biden and the Democratic nomination? Luckily, I spoke with Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn cofounder and Democratic mega-donor about Biden and whether Silicon …
Read More »Is Dr. Phil a Bigger Political Stage for Candidates Than CNN?
Tonight, President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump will face off in what has traditionally been one of the most important events of each election cycle—the first presidential debate. For decades, these major television events have driven news cycles and provided the largest opportunities for candidates to speak directly …
Read More »Unwelcome at the Debate, RFK Jr.’s Star Shines on TikTok Live
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won’t be on the presidential debate stage next week to answer questions, but he is fielding them on TikTok Live. On Thursday night, a group of TikTok creators livestreamed a town hall with Kennedy titled “The Sickening of America.” For around an hour, Kennedy, a noted …
Read More »Big Tech Is Giving Campaigns Both the Venom and the Antidote for GenAI
The Biden campaign is facing its first major cheapfake scandal this week. Doctored clips of Biden at the G7 Summit and a Hollywood fundraiser have spread across platforms like X, claiming to show Biden wandering off, mumbling unintelligibly, or, uh, even pooping his pants. It’s exactly the type of content …
Read More »A Billionaire Has a Plan to Save the Internet—Buying TikTok Is the Next Step
Hey, everyone. I’m back! Big thanks to my colleagues Vittoria Elliott and Dhruv Mehrotra for taking over for the past two weeks. Hopefully you all enjoyed hearing from them. For this week, I spoke with billionaire Frank McCourt. He’s spearheading a bid to buy TikTok and is one of the …
Read More »Trump Campaign Claims $34.8 Million Windfall After Guilty Verdict
Donald Trump’s campaign claimed on Friday that it had raised more than $34 million immediately following the Thursday evening announcement of his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The massive fundraising haul comes the morning after a jury found the former president guilty in a criminal hush money …
Read More »You Can Get Paid to Talk to Friends About Voting
In Tonya Williams’ Mississippi family, they all vote. But last year, Williams’ uncle mentioned offhandedly that he hadn’t voted in an election for several years. Shocked, she helped him make a plan. “We don't miss elections. We will go. If you need a ride, we will go pick you up …
Read More »Inside the Reluctant Fight to Ban Deepfake Ads
Two things happened this week that got me really worried about AI’s role in the US election: First, WIRED published a massive story on how voters in India have received over 50 million deepfaked voice calls imitating candidates and political figures. That’s a lot of deepfakes, and voters are confusing …
Read More »Hasan Piker Won’t Tell You to Vote for Joe Biden
The left’s favorite political Twitch streamer, Hasan Piker, doesn’t know if he’s voting for President Joe Biden and doesn’t care if you do either. Nearly every day, Piker streams on Twitch for around eight hours to his more than 2.6 million followers on the platform. He’s not a household name …
Read More »TikTok Sues the US Government to Stop a Potential Ban
TikTok sued the US federal government on Tuesday, arguing that the possible app ban violates the First Amendment. Last month, President Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok and its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its ownership of the app or face a nationwide ban. At the time, TikTok said …
Read More »