Makena Kelly

The Influencers with as Much Presidential Access as the Press

Campaigns and politicians have experimented with influencer marketing over the past four years. But recruiting content creators to reach voters is already happening more than ever in 2024. The Biden campaign has built out a powerful digital operation with a few staffers specifically focused on online persuasion. The White House …

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RFK Jr. Has Assembled His Anti-Vax Conspiracy Squad

Conspiracy theories and the people creating them have overwhelmed the US political process, and they’re becoming only more prevalent with each passing year. 2024 will be no different, if not worse: We’re already uncovering all kinds here on the WIRED Politics desk, from election conspiracy groups to claims that Boeing …

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A Topsy-Turvy Online Election

Hey, everyone! Welcome to the first edition of the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter. I’m Makena Kelly, a senior politics writer at WIRED, and I’m so glad you’re here. After the 2020 US election, the rhetoric of the internet spilled out into the real world with violent consequences. In the years …

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TikTok Is Facing Its Greatest Threat Yet

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill that would force TikTok’s owner, Bytedance, to sell off the app or face an outright ban. The bill, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was sponsored by a group of nearly two …

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Microsoft-Powered Chatbot Is Back Online

Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first announced his longshot presidential bid, his campaign has leaned into a variety of unorthodox digital strategies. He’s appeared on countless podcasts and collaborated with popular influencers to reach voters online. More recently, the Kennedy campaign has experimented with an AI chatbot that used an …

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Why Joe Biden Finally Joined TikTok

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign landed on TikTok with a thud, drawing ire from critics across the political spectrum. Left-leaning users have called the campaign’s posts tone-deaf in light of the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Pointing to the app’s connections to China, Republicans demanded the president delete the account altogether. But …

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The Biden Campaign Is Officially Trolling on TikTok Now

President Joe Biden is officially on TikTok. In the middle of the Super Bowl on Sunday, the Biden campaign announced that it had joined the platform. In Biden’s first post, he’s asked a series of questions, like whether he prefers the Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers. At …

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AI-Generated Voices in Robocalls Are Now Illegal

It’s now illegal in the US for robocallers to use AI-generated voices, thanks to a new ruling by the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. In a unanimous decision, the FCC expands the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, to cover robocall scams that contain AI voice clones. The new rule …

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