Politics
House GOP investigates why the feds didn’t give Elon Musk’s company more money
Happy Tuesday. Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and the all-inclusive world of technology.
Musk’s Minions
Republicans in Congress are already hard at work doing billionaire Elon Musk’s bidding, in just about the most literal way possible. On Monday, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee announced an investigation into the Federal Communications Commission’s 2022 decision not to award a nearly $900 million bid for Musk’s Starlink to provide broadband internet to rural areas.
The move comes after Musk, a staunch Trump supporter, used his social media platform X to claim that the government’s decision not to grant Starlink the bid was “illegal” and cost lives in North Carolina. In another tweet, he promoted false claims — later amplified by Donald Trump — that the government was preventing Starlink servers from being delivered to victims of Hurricane Helene.
A Monday letter from the House Oversight Committee to the FCC demands documents for a probe on whether the FCC’s decision “followed established processes and is not improperly using the regulatory process for political purposes.”
In 2022, the FCC said the decision was because Starlink didn’t meet its internet speed requirements. And the agency stood by that decision in a statement last December. But Republicans seem eager to bow to Musk every opportunity possible. One can only imagine the level of fealty he’ll likely be paid if Trump wins the presidency in November.
AI and the First Amendment
California’s effort to curtail the use of election-related deepfakes was halted last week when a federal judge paused a law meant to crack down on the deceptive videos. The pause followed a conservative influencer’s claim that California’s law, Assembly Bill 2839, violated the First Amendment.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
States sue TikTok
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia are suing TikTokalleging the app is harmful to young people and has been used deliberately to hook them with “addictive” features. TikTok responded in a public statementsaying, “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading.”
Read more at CNBC.
A storm of antisemitism
Jewish officials working on the response to Hurricane Helene have faced antisemitic attacks online as right-wingers have spread vile conspiracy theories suggesting that nefarious figures are playing some kind of role in worsening the hurricane’s fallout.
Antisemitic conspiracy theories accusing Jewish people in North Carolina of orchestrating Hurricane Helene are spreading like wildfire on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Read the report here.
Clinton’s social media concerns
In a recent interview on BLN, Hillary Clinton came out in support of stricter regulation of social media companies that allow harmful content to be posted on their platform. Clinton, who knows from experience how social media misinformation can influence politics, has been outspoken about the need to combat this misinformation in recent years.
CBP One lies
I recently wrote about Republicans like Trump, Musk and Ohio Sen. JD Vance spreading lies about the immigration app CBP One to stoke fear and anger toward immigrants as early voting is underway.
Read more here.
Ja’han Jones is The ReidOut Blog writer. He’s a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”
Politics
Hageman launches bid for Wyoming Senate seat
Wyoming GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman on Tuesday announced her campaign for Senate, hoping to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis in next year’s election.
The Wyoming Republican is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, and with his backing she helped oust Republican then-Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of Trump’s, in the 2022 primary.
“This fight is about making sure the next century sees the advancements of the last, while protecting our culture and our way of life,” Hageman said in her launch video. “We must dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the next 100 years is the next great American century.”
Lummis announced she would not seek reelection last week, saying she felt like a “sprinter in a marathon” despite being a “devout legislator.” Hageman, who had been debating a gubernatorial bid, was expected to enter the Senate race.
Hageman touted her ties to the president in her announcement video, highlighting her record of support for Trump’s policies during her time in the House and vowing to keep Wyoming a “leader in energy and food production.”
“I worked with President Trump to pass 46 billion in additional funding for border security, while ensuring that Wyomingites do not pay the cost of new immigration. We work together to secure the border and fund efforts to remove and deport those in the country illegally,” she said.
Trump won the deep-red state by nearly 46 points in last year’s election, and Hageman herself was reelected by nearly 48 points, according to exit polling.
Still, Hageman bore the brunt of voters’ displeasure earlier this year during a town hall. As she spoke of the Department of Government Efficiency, federal cuts and Social Security, the crowd booed her.
Politics
Ben Sasse says he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer
Former Sen. Ben Sasse announced on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The Nebraska Republican shared the news on X, writing in a lengthy social media post that he had received the diagnosis last week.
“Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence,” Sasse said. “But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”
The two term senator retired in 2023 and then went on to serve as president of the University of Florida. He eventually left the school to spend more time with his wife, Melissa, after she was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Sasse continued to teach classes at University of Florida’s Hamilton Center after he stepped down as president. He previously served as a professor at the University of Texas, as an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services and as president of Midland University.
Sasse on Tuesday shared that he and his wife have only grown closer since and opened up about his children’s recent successes and milestones.
“There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst,” Sasse said. “As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”
Sasse said he’ll have more to share in the future, adding that he is “not going down without a fight” and will be undergoing treatment.
“Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape,” Sasse said.
Politics
Cannon keeps Jack Smith’s classified records report under wraps for now
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday lifted restrictions on the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s findings from his investigation into President Trump’s handling of classified records — but she gave the president a 60-day window to challenge her order. Cannon did not immediately lift her order barring the Justice Department from sharing…
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