This is the Month That Was
Content Creators, Internet on Trial, Trumpy Tawdry Tantrums
August is normally a sleepy month in national politics. There’s a convention or two and those unfortunate enough to be on certain mailing lists get bombarded with pleas to donate before “a critical deadline.”
These are not normal times. An almost sure path (at least Trump’s advisors thought so) to the Presidency was blocked as the Democratic Party changed candidates. Social and alternative media rose in visibility and importance, with the inclusion of 200 non-reporters publishing from the floor of the DNC.
The outrage coming from much of the traditional media was almost comic; reporters and editorialists who’d set the tone for campaigns while awash in old assumptions competed with humans not willing to accept what “everybody knows.”
The significance of content creators (who can be good, bad, or indifferent) reporting from Chicago was their direct connection with users of social media platforms.
Here’s Taylor Lorenz, whose beat as a technology reporter has given her valuable insight into online creators:
On top of educating followers on how the democratic process worked, these creators lifted the curtain on what it was actually like on the ground for delegates, activists, and the media. They did it all in an extremely collaborative and accessible way that reached millions online.
One of the defining features of content creation is audience engagement. And while many online have been bashing the DNC creators for "chasing likes", they fail to recognize that these influencers are building powerful communities around shared interests and values. This type of relationship is far more meaningful than the passive consumption of traditional news.
***
The case that could break the internet.
Legislation regulating contacts/usage of social media by minors will become law soon, either in the States or on a Federal level. Smartphone usage during the school day for K-12 students is on its way out.
Many educators and social scientists say social media can lead to addiction or other harmful health consequences. But, as California has struggled to pass State Senator Nancy Skinner’s SB 976, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, thorny questions about freedom of expression have abounded.
And then there’s Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which courts have given internet companies an escape hatch on questions of liability on shared content.
Here’s Matt Stoller, who covers monopolies in the BIG newsletter:
Want to know why it’s so difficult to touch the business models of extraordinarily powerful big tech firms? Well, for years, a law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act granted them a de facto Get Out of Jail free card, as long as they could say ‘the algorithm did it.’
I don’t tend to expect good things from the Federal judiciary, but on Tuesday, the Third Circuit issued a shocking opinion rolling that law back, and ending the liability shield that large tech firms use to commit bad actions without consequence. “This is a really substantial and important decision,” wrote legal scholar Zephyr Teachout. I emailed a political contact who has worked in this space and has tangled with big tech for more than ten years to ask how important this decision is. His response? “HUGE.”
The bottom line here is that platform-curated content sent to users via algorithms based on data derived from previous visits or specific demographic information (not consensually given) is NOT first amendment protected speech.
The act of algorithms sending that content makes internet companies distributors, as opposed to publishers, a distinction that erroneously disappeared in early case law on this topic.
In other words, the fundamental issue here is not really whether big tech platforms should be regulated as speakers, as that’s a misconception of what they do. They don’t speak, they are middlemen. And hopefully, we will follow the logic of Matey’s opinion, and start to see the policy problem as what to do about that.
This is one of those rulings that will percolate slowly into the public’s consciousness, but Stoller says now that internet platforms won’t be able to shield themselves from liability (at least in the Third Circuit) we’ll see lawsuits galore. Once the appeals start (or Silicon Valley develops a sudden interest in Section 230 ‘reform’.) the impact of this ruling will become more widely known.
Of course, the Supreme Court could try to avoid the issue, or rule badly. Congress could override the courts. But at the very least, this decision forces the issue. And that means the gravy train, where big tech has been able to pollute our society without any responsibility, is likely ending.
***
Speaking of pollution, how about the desperation of Donald J Trump?
It’s safe to say he’s not happy about Special Counsel Jack Smith’s refiling –sanitized for Supreme Court satisfaction– of criminal charges stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Here’s the Associated Press:
Trump reposted a doctored image that was made to look like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in orange prison jumpsuits, among other political figures, and a lewd post about Harris and Clinton that referenced a sex act. One post seemed to suggest former President Barack Obama should be tried in a military court.
Trump has long talked about seeking retribution against perceived enemies if he regains the White House. He has publicly bristled in recent weeks at the advice of his campaign advisors to focus his message on policy around the economy and the border rather than indulge in personal attacks that are seen as distracting from the case he’s trying to make to voters.
Later on Wednesday, Trump also trashed Fox News for the new poll showing Harris leading in Georgia.
***
Meanwhile, his campaign photo opportunity at the Arlington National Cemetery continues to draw unwanted attention.
Long story short: Trump’s campaign staff planned a visual political event that involved using Section 60 (where recently deceased military personnel are buried) as a backdrop. Federal law specifically prohibits use of the cemetery for commercial or political causes, and when an employee of the Army (which has responsibility for the site) objected, Trump’s handlers got verbally and physically abusive.
The employee in question has refused to file a complaint, saying she feared harassment from the ex-President’s supporters.
The TikTok commercial from the cemetery event was posted shortly after VP candidate J.D. Vance commented, “it’s not like they were shooting a commercial.” He also held Vice President Kamala Harris (who was campaigning in rural Georgia) responsible for the incident, saying she could “go to hell.”
***
Lest we forget…
***
Go figure. Historian Heather Cox Richardson delved into the history of using words associated with ‘socialism’ as an attack against competing candidates. Like so much of our history right-wing extremists are attempting to suppress, the term originated as code for racism.
What Republicans mean by "socialism" in America is a product of the years immediately after the Civil War, when African American men first got the right to vote. Eager to join the economic system from which they had previously been excluded, these men voted for leaders who promised to rebuild the South, provide schools and hospitals (as well as prosthetics for veterans, a vital need in the post-war U.S.), and develop the economy with railroads to provide an equal opportunity for all men to rise to prosperity.
Former Confederates loathed the idea of Black men voting almost as much as they hated the idea of equal rights. They insisted that the public programs poorer voters wanted were simply a redistribution of wealth from prosperous white men to undeserving Black Americans who wanted a handout, although white people would also benefit from such programs. Improvements could be paid for only with tax levies, and white men were the only ones with property in the Reconstruction South. Thus, public investments in roads and schools and hospitals would redistribute wealth from propertied men to poor people, from white men to Black people. It was, opponents said, “socialism.” Poor black voters were instituting, one popular magazine wrote, "Socialism in South Carolina" and should be kept from the polls.
***
News You Should Know About
****
Why Wind Energy Is in a State of Crisis by Michael Thomas at Distilled
As wind projects proliferated across America’s Great Plains, NIMBYs and clean energy opponents began developing a playbook to block these projects. By 2012, there was a small, but powerful group of “wind-warriors” and lawyers traveling the country to block wind energy projects.
What started as a group of NIMBYs with varied interests, soon transformed into a national movement with financial backing from the fossil fuel industry. In 2012, American Tradition Institute (ATI), a dark money think tank, organized a convening to discuss a national strategy to change American public opinion about wind energy.
“Public opinion [on wind energy] must begin to change among citizens at large,” a confidential memo, sent to meet attendees, read. The goal of the campaign: “Provide a credible counter message to the (wind) industry.”
***
San Diego’s Transit Ridership Is on the Road to a Strong Recovery by Alex Wong at StreetsBlogCal
San Diego’s Trolley system's ridership recovery is leading not only the state but also the nation. Despite its fifth place in 2019 national light-rail ridership, the Trolley ranked first in both 2022 and 2023. This rebound is partly due to the new Mid-Coast Trolley, which opened in November 2021. But the National Transit Database (NTD) shows that even by the last quarter before the new line opened, the Trolley had recovered 63 percent of its 2019 ridership, behind only light rail systems in L.A. and New Jersey (both had recovered 65 percent of their ridership at that time). As of May 2024, the Trolley was at 112 percent of its May 2019 ridership - compared to 89 percent in Los Angeles and 120 percent in Seattle. And the latter two systems have opened multiple expansions since 2019. The San Diego Trolley is on track to break all-time record ridership at 43.6 million trips in 2025.
San Diego’s bus service has recovered a more modest 77 percent of its pre-pandemic ridership. But even so, total San Diego urban area transit ridership from January to June of 2024 was 89.2 percent of ridership over the same period in 2019. Compare that to the San Francisco/Oakland area (64 percent), Los Angeles (81.2 percent), and Sacramento (78.9 percent).
***
Donald Trump likes to pretend he is still president — but his act caught up with him at Arlington by Heather Digby Parton at Salon
This is, of course, just the latest in a long line of Trump's insults to the military. For someone who loves the idea of being commander in chief, he sure doesn't have a high regard for the people who gave their lives in war. (Yes, "suckers and losers".) It's something I've always found a little bit mystifying. He loves cops. He loves uniforms. But he has absolutely no respect for service members, especially the brass. It's odd considering that they are required to salute smartly and follow orders. You'd think he'd love that. But I suppose the fact that he issued so many illegal and maniacal orders that they had to object makes him angry.
There are exceptions, of course. The cracked former General Michael Flynn, the disgraced former Admiral Ronny Jackson and certain war criminals he pardoned and invited down to his resort. But for the most part, Trump was always uncomfortable around the military, maybe because it's not in their nature to sycophantically tell him what he wants to hear. Even when he's play-acting, as he was on Monday at Arlington, he can't seem to get it right.
Trump has spent the last four years pretending to still be the president and continuing to dominate our political culture even though he's really just some rich guy who lives in Palm Beach and likes to run for president. If he didn't want people to think of him as the incumbent maybe he shouldn't have acted like he was for the past four years.
