Neowin News Feed for: Elections

Phishing attack uses fake donation websites to steal crypto from Trump voters

Martin Hodás — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:00:01 +0000

An ongoing phishing campaign targets Donald Trump supporters. It uses fake donation websites; however, the fact that it only accepts payments in crypto means its impact is limited. Read more...

Meta says the candidates are subject to the same rules as regular users. It's a blatant lie

Martin Hodás — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 15:00:01 +0000

Meta is failing its users by not fact-checking Trump and other political figures. It does so under the false argument of free speech and self-imposed reach limitations that it can easily lift. Read more...

Man who paid $150 to a magician in Biden deepfake robocall campaign faces $6 million fine

Martin Hodás — Sun, 26 May 2024 07:06:01 +0000

The man who ordered a malicious robocall campaign with a fake voice of Joe Biden was charged with 26 felony counts. The Attorney General hopes this will be a strong deterrent for anyone else. Read more...

Meta's “supreme court” warns Facebook, Instagram, and competitors ahead of global elections

Martin Hodás — Fri, 03 May 2024 18:16:01 +0000

Inaccurate enforcement by social media platforms and unequal investment in global election integrity efforts are a threat to election processes around the globe, Meta's Oversight Board warns. Read more...

Meta kills data tool that helped researchers uncover shady stuff on Facebook, Instagram

Martin Hodás — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 14:30:01 +0000

Widely-used social media data tool CrowdTangle will officially shut down just weeks before U.S. Presidential election. Meta claims it created an even more powerful successor, but can we believe it? Read more...

Research: AI tools like ChatGPT Plus and Midjourney are generating fake election images

Anushe Fawaz — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:42:01 +0000

Research done on generative AI tools like Midjourney revealed widespread disinformation about U.S. elections. It argued that these platforms are failing to implement policies on misinformation. Read more...

TikTok will launch in-app Election Centers to monitor fake news during EU elections

Anushe Fawaz — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:24:01 +0000

TikTok is developing in-app local language Election Centers for 27 countries in the EU. This is among the other efforts it is making to tackle fake news and misinformation about the EU elections. Read more...

Deepfake pre-election robocalls of Joe Biden tracked to a Texas firm

Martin Hodás — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 15:34:01 +0000

The Attorney General's Office in New Hampshire made progress in investigating the robocall campaign that used the fake voice of President Joe Biden to deter people from voting in primaries. Read more...

A deepfake voice of Joe Biden was part of a vote suppression robocall campaign

Martin Hodás — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 23:28:01 +0000

A fake audio message impersonating Joe Biden was used to urge supporters not to vote in the presidential primary. The new incident reinforces national concern about the misuse of AI. Read more...

A new report says Microsoft Copilot frequently offers false info to election questions

John Callaham — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:36:01 +0000

A new report claims that Microsoft's Copilot AI chatbot frequently offers false information, including debunked conspiracies, when asked about questions about upcoming elections in the US and overseas Read more...

Microsoft's head economist thinks AI could pose a big threat to future elections

John Callaham — Wed, 03 May 2023 15:16:01 +0000

Microsoft's chief economist Michael Schwarz believes that governments should worry less about AI taking jobs and more about how scammers could use AI tools to interfere in upcoming elections. Read more...

Microsoft launches new tool to make elections more accessible

Hamza Jawad — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:00:01 +0000

The new tool arrives with the U.S. Disability Voting Rights Week 2022 having kicked off today as well. It is available in all 50 states in the United States, as well as in Washington DC. Read more...

Twitter is now allowing users to report elections and COVID-19 misinformation

Usama Jawad — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 05:54:02 +0000

Twitter is experimenting with allowing some users to report tweets containing misleading information, with a special focus on misinformation related to COVID-19, vaccines, and elections. Read more...

Microsoft expands AccountGuard features to high-risk entities in 31 countries

Usama Jawad — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 04:52:01 +0000

Microsoft is expanding its identity and access management protections available in AccountGuard to high-risk customers in 31 democracies at no extra cost. It contains features like MFA and SSO. Read more...

Microsoft is suspending PAC donations for officials who objected to election certification

Usama Jawad — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 08:30:01 +0000

Microsoft has announced some changes to its PAC, a major one being suspending donations to Congress members who voted against election certification for the "duration of the 2022 election cycle". Read more...

Microsoft shares the innovative ways in which its ElectionGuard software is being utilized

Hamza Jawad — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:12:01 +0000

Microsoft has highlighted the ways in which its ElectionGuard software is being made use of. The firm also plans to detail more of the software's use in traditional voting systems in the future. Read more...

Here's how Twitter tried to stop the spread of misleading information during U.S. elections

Usama Jawad — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 03:32:01 +0000

Twitter has detailed its ongoing efforts to curb the spread of fake news related to the U.S. presidential elections. The company will also be reverting some product changes that had a negative impact. Read more...

Facebook shares stats regarding user engagement in the U.S. prior to elections

Usama Jawad — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 09:40:01 +0000

Facebook has shared some stats regarding user engagement in the U.S. prior to the elections. Following the race being called, heart reacts increased while angry reacts remained at usual levels. Read more...

Microsoft on U.S. elections: We must build new bridges to unite people

Usama Jawad — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 20:02:05 +0000

In a blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith has congratulated the President- and Vice-President-Elect, and emphasized the importance of building bridges to close the divide between people. Read more...

Bitcoin passes $15,000 for the first time since 2018

Paul Hill — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 03:32:01 +0000

The price of bitcoin has reached $15,000 for the first time since 2018. It comes as the US presidential race comes down to the wire with ballots being counted in a handful of crucial states. Read more...

Trump campaign website briefly defaced by hackers

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 07:06:01 +0000

In a stint that lasted for 30 minutes, hackers swapped out the 'Coalitions' tab of President Trump's campaign website, threatening to release sensitive information in exchange for cryptocurrency. Read more...

Microsoft has disabled 94% of Trickbot's critical operational infrastructure

Usama Jawad — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 04:10:02 +0000

Microsoft has announced that it has taken down 120 out of 128 servers being utilized by the Trickbot botnet, an important stepping stone in digitally protecting the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. Read more...

Facebook announces new initiative to help states recruit poll workers

Jay Bonggolto — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 20:24:01 +0000

Facebook is helping state election authorities recruit poll station workers through a new feature in the News Feed and free ad credits. The new initiative will be rolled out starting this weekend. Read more...

Microsoft reports increased cyberattacks targeting U.S. elections

Usama Jawad — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 07:10:02 +0000

Microsoft has reported increased activity from hacking groups based in Russia, China, and Iran targeting the U.S. presidential elections. Both Biden and Trump campaigns have been attacked. Read more...

Biden's campaign bans TikTok from employees mobile devices

Hamza Khan — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 04:04:01 +0000

Biden's campaign banned TikTok from its staffer's mobile devices citing the privacy and security concerns as the firm has been under suspicion that it might share data with the Chinese Government. Read more...

Facebook will now label state-controlled media outlets and block their ads

João Carrasqueira — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 17:16:01 +0000

Facebook has announced that it will begin labelling news outlets that are partially or fully controlled by state authorities, providing more transparency on the sources of information on the platform. Read more...

Hackers from Iran tried to breach the U.S. presidential campaign, says Microsoft

Ather Fawaz — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:30:01 +0000

Between August and September, the Iranian hacker group Phosphorus made more than 2,700 attempts to hack accounts linked to U.S. government officials and the 2020 presidential campaign. Read more...

Facebook making it tougher to advertise during the 2020 U.S. presidential election

Paul Hill — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 11:40:02 +0000

Facebook has announced that it's updating its ad-publishing rules ready for the upcoming U.S. presidential elections in 2020. With the changes voters will be able to easily track candidate spending. Read more...

Facebook rolls out ad transparency tools globally, albeit with caveats

Paul Hill — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 19:30:01 +0000

Facebook has announced the global roll out of its Ad Library and Ad Library API. While it wants political advertisers to sign up, it won't be proactively checking ads in many countries. Read more...

Twitter is cracking down on election tweets meant to mislead voters

Jay Bonggolto — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 14:14:01 +0000

Twitter is rolling out a new reporting feature that will allow users to flag election tweets that may be deemed misleading. The tool will be available first in India from April 25 and later in EU. Read more...

Facebook unveils plans to help protect Indian elections

Paul Hill — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 11:16:01 +0000

Facebook has announced a raft of measures that it has been working on for the past 18 months in order to protect the upcoming General Election in India. The measures expand on those in other regions. Read more...

Facebook announces measures to protect the upcoming European Union elections

Paul Hill — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 07:30:01 +0000

Facebook has announced concrete steps that it is taking to do its part in the protection of the upcoming European Union elections which are scheduled to take place between 23 - 26 May. Read more...

Twitter expands political ad transparency tools to EU, India, and Australia

Paul Hill — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 13:30:01 +0000

Twitter has announced that political advertisers in the EU, India, and Australia will have to become verified through a process before they can publish ads. Rules come into effect on March 11th. Read more...

Facebook to tighten ad rules in countries with 2019 elections

Paul Hill — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 14:30:01 +0000

Facebook has announced that it will roll out stringent ad rules in several more locations expecting elections this year. Indians will also have access to the previously announced ad archive. Read more...

Facebook to bolster Indian political ads transparency

Paul Hill — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 01:56:02 +0000

Facebook is rolling out ad transparency measures to India in anticipation for the upcoming general election next year. Those looking to post political ads will have to be verified by Facebook. Read more...

Facebook launches Ad Archive Report to make platform advertising more transparent

Paul Hill — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 08:58:01 +0000

Facebook has launched its Ad Archive Report tool which lets you search for political ads and those pertaining to issues of national importance. The social media company will update the archive weekly. Read more...

Facebook launches pilot program to help protect those running in the U.S. midterms

Paul Hill — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 01:58:02 +0000

Facebook has announced a new security pilot program aimed at candidates and staff members participating in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. If the pilot is successful it could be expanded. Read more...

Facebook to help scholars assess social media's impact on elections

Paul Hill — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 17:16:01 +0000

Facebook has teamed up with several pro-democracy foundations in order to fund researchers, with access to Facebook datasets, in order to see how social media affects the outcomes of elections. Read more...

Twitter emailing those who retweeted Russian bots

Paul Hill — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 17:08:01 +0000

Twitter says that it will send emails to more than half a million Americans to let them know that accounts they interacted with were actually phony Russian bots run by the Internet Research Agency. Read more...

Facebook will make advertisements more transparent

Paul Hill — Sat, 28 Oct 2017 14:26:01 +0000

Facebook is going to rollout tools to its platforms which allow users to check up on ads being displayed to them by Pages. Users will be able to look through archives of ads uploaded too. Read more...