midtermelections
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DOJ report finds foreign meddling had no impact on midterm elections
If attempts at election meddling had any tangible effect on the US midterms, you won't hear about it from some officials. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have submitted a joint report to President Trump saying there was no evidence a foreign government or agency had a "material impact" on the infrastructures of the 2018 vote, including campaigns and political bodies. The actual conclusions are classified, but they're consistent with what the government said after the elections, the Justice Department said.
Google can tell you how and where to vote on Election Day
You can add Google to the list of tech companies nudging you to get out to the polls today. The big G's search engine is the go-to source for our most pressing, and prosaic, questions. And once again, it can act as your Election Day info hub, built around your search queries.
Apple News app will provide real-time results on Election Day
Come November 6th, Apple will turn its News app into election central. According to TechCrunch, the company is planning to launch a new Election Night section that will display live results, highlight updates to key races and share major stories from major news outlets. The Election Night tab will appear in place of the Midterm Elections section in the app starting at 8 PM ET on election day.
Twitter’s new midterm election page already includes fake news
Today, Twitter rolled out a new page focused on the US midterm elections, and on it, users can view supposedly relevant tweets through two tabs -- "Latest" and "Top Commentary." On mobile, there's also a "News" tab that includes separate sections for each state. However, while this page is clearly meant to be a place for users to find more information about the upcoming election, it's surfacing tweets from conspiracy theorists, people pushing disinformation and what appear to be bot accounts, BuzzFeed News reports.
Lime offers free bike and scooter rentals on Election Day
If you're looking for a way to the polls this Election Day, you can snag a free ride via bike or scooter from Lime. The company is offering free trips on its fleet of shared bicycles, e-bikes, and occasionally abused electric scooters on Tuesday, November 6th.
Facebook says recent data breach wasn't 'related to the midterms'
Even though the number of users affected by Facebook's most recent hack was lowered to 29 million, from 50 million, it's still safe to say the attack was worse than originally thought. That's because we now know that the breach, which Facebook revealed a couple of weeks ago, exposed very detailed information of 14 million of those users, including their username, birthdate, gender, location, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, education, work, the devices they used to access Facebook and the last 10 places they checked into (or were tagged in) on the site. The attackers, whose identities Facebook won't reveal because of an ongoing FBI investigation, were also able to view which people/Pages were followed by these 14 million users, as well as their 15 most recent searches on Facebook.
Instagram uses Stories to encourage voter registration
The US midterm election is right around the corner, and Instagram is doing its part to encourage as many people as possible to register to vote. It launched a registration push Tuesday, helping 'Grammers get the information they need to sign up to vote using ads in feeds and stories.
Twitter will also label issue ads under its new advertising policy
Back in May, Twitter laid out its upcoming policies to improve transparency for election-related ads aimed at US citizens leading up to the midterms this fall. In addition to rules dictating how advertisers must present themselves on the platform, the social network is requiring them to certify their identity and prove that they live in America. While news organizations can petition Twitter to be exempt from these restrictions, everyone else who wants to advertise election-related material -- including, now, on hot-button issues -- must be certified by the social network by September 30th or their advertisements won't go up.
Google publishes its own archive of US political ads
In the months leading up to the US midterm elections, the big online sites that inadvertently hosted the worst manipulation back in 2016, like Facebook and Twitter, have adopted new advertising policies to enforce transparency. So has Google, which has followed Facebook in preparing another resource for the public: An archive of ads. Today, the company published a database of all the US political advertisements that have appeared on its platforms.
Senate sets election hearing with Twitter, Facebook and Google execs
Today, Mark Warner (D-VA) announced that the Senate Intelligence Committee will hear testimony from Facebook, Google and Twitter executives on September 5th. The committee wants to hear about what these companies are doing to prevent foreign influence over and meddling in the 2018 US midterm elections.
Russian hackers targeted Democratic senator ahead of midterms
Russian hackers targeted the campaign of Sen. Claire McCaskill in the Kremlin's first identified attempt at interference this midterm election season, The Daily Beast reports. "While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that [Russia thinks it] can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I've said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully," Missouri Democrat McCaskill said in a statement.
Tech giants discussed midterm election concerns with US government
This week, The New York Times reported that tech companies met with US government officials to discuss security and possible foreign influence around the 2018 midterm elections. Representatives from Amazon, Google, Twitter, Oath, Microsoft, Snap and Apple met at Facebook's headquarters in California. Christopher Krebs, an under secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and an unnamed representative from the FBI's foreign influence task force were present at the meeting.
Twitter initiates its new campaign ad policy
Social media became a battleground in the 2016 election with bot accounts pushing fake news and tons of advertising trying to influence US voters. In the lead-up to the 2018 midterms, platforms have announced new rules to improve transparency. Today, just as Facebook implemented its own political advertising disclosures, Twitter has adopted changes to how it handles campaign advertisements to vet buyers.
Bing's new election tool helps you make an informed vote
Not sure where your local politicians stand in the upcoming US midterm election? You won't have to vote blind. Microsoft has followed in Google's footsteps by launching Bing Elections, its own tool for helping you make informed decisions at the voting booth. The search-based tool lets you know candidates' positions on the issues, details propositions on the ballot and predicts the outcomes for both congressional and gubernatorial races. It'll also help you find the nearest polling station if you're not certain where to go. No, the site won't let you escape aggressive campaign ads, but it may let you ignore them when it comes time to choose. [Image credit: Getty Images]
