Hillicon Valley: US Intel says Russia, Iran sought to influence elections | Advocates press Facebook to combat Spanish-language disinformation | Five attorneys general join lawsuit against Google

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Top U.S. intelligence officials on Wednesday concluded that Russia and Iran attempted to interfere in the 2020 elections, but did not change any votes. Meanwhile, Facebook is facing fierce pushback over its handling of Spanish-language disinformation, with at least one Democrat saying he will raise the issue at next week’s House Energy and Commerce Hearing. Google’s challenges are also growing, with five more attorneys general jumping onto the Texas-led lawsuit against the Silicon Valley giant, including the first Democrat to join the effort. 

 

ELECTION INTERFERENCE UPDATE: Russia and Iran undertook campaigns to influence the 2020 U.S. election, but intelligence agencies found no evidence that foreign actors tried to alter votes or other technical aspects of the voting process, according to conclusions of a declassified report released Tuesday.

The two foreign campaigns sought to influence the election for different results — Russia, to promote former President Trump, while Iran went against him — but among five key judgements outlined in the declassified report is that no foreign actor interfered in the 2020 voting process.

Read more about the report here. 

 

FACEBOOK UNDER FIRE: Racial justice and internet accountability advocacy groups launched a campaign Tuesday pressuring Facebook to take action to combat what they called a crisis of Spanish-language disinformation on the social media platform. 

The organizations released a Spanish-language disinformation action plan that calls for Facebook to hire an executive-level manager to oversee U.S. Spanish-language content moderation policy and enforcement as part of the larger #YaBastaFacebook campaign. 

Lawmaker support: Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) joined the organizations’ push for Facebook to crack down on such disinformation, and said he will question Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about his plans to address the issue during next week’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. 

In response to the campaign, a Facebook spokesperson said the company is taking “aggressive steps to fight misinformation in Spanish and dozens of other languages,” but did not directly address whether Facebook will implement the changes the groups are calling for in the action plan.

Read more here. 

 

THE MORE, THE MERRIER: Attorneys general from four states and Puerto Rico joined the Texas-led lawsuit against Google, including Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, the first Democrat to join the effort. 

Alaska, Florida, Montana and Nevada, which all have Republican attorneys general, also joined the lawsuit on Monday, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 15 states and territories. 

What’s in the lawsuit: The lawsuit filed in December alleges Google has violated federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws. The Texas-led suit focuses on allegations that Google stifled competition in the advertising technology market. 

In the updated complaint filed Monday, the states also target Google’s plans to phase out its tracking features that use third-party cookies. 

“Google’s new scheme is, in essence, to wall off the entire portion of the internet that consumers access through Google’s Chrome browser,” the states said in the complaint. 

Read more about the lawsuit. 

 

BEHIND BARS: A teenager responsible for masterminding a massive Bitcoin scam last year that involved hacking Twitter accounts for various politicians and other high-profile figures has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Graham Clark, 18, agreed to a deal with prosecutors to serve three years in prison after pleading guilty to various fraud charges connected to the July 2020 hack, officials announced Tuesday.

The charges: Clark was charged with using a variety of hacking and social engineering techniques to gain access to dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts and ask followers to send bitcoin to a cryptocurrency account. 

 

RIGHTWING PLATFORMS FALTER: Alternative social media platforms that saw a surge in users immediately after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are failing to maintain growth anywhere near those levels more than two months after the insurrection.

The Capitol riot, coupled with former President Trump’s removal from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, provided a rare opportunity for alternative social media platforms to challenge the established players. But after an initial spike in activity, many of the sites that tried to win over frustrated fans of the former president have lost steam.

Three examples: U.S. mobile downloads of platforms like MeWe, the social network started as a privacy-focused alternative to Facebook, and Rumble, conservative commentator Dan Bongino’s response to YouTube, fell upward of 80 percent from January to February, according to data shared with The Hill by Sensor Tower. CloutHub, another platform favored by those on the right, declined by a similar amount during that period.

Read more about the reasons behind the slow down.

 

TINDER SAFETY: Match Group, which owns a suite of apps including Tinder, announced Monday that it will integrate a background check feature into its services later this year.

The group is investing in Garbo, a nonprofit that lets people run background checks using only a first name and phone number or a full name at low costs.

Tinder users will be able to use the feature to get details about potential dates including arrest records and histories of violence.

Interesting detail: Garbo explicitly excludes arrests related to drug possession as part of a push for equity given that those kinds of charges are levied disproportionately against people of color.

Read more.

 

GOOGLE CUTS COMMISSION CHARGES: Google announced on Tuesday that it is reducing the commission fee charged to Android developers on its app store, Google Play, amid criticism from developers over the charges. 

“Starting on July 1, 2021 we are reducing the service fee Google Play receives when a developer sells digital goods or services to 15% for the first $1M (USD) of revenue every developer earns each year,” Sameer Samat, vice president of product management, said in a blog post.

What it means: The service fee will be dropped to 15 percent for the first $1 million of total revenue made by each developer every year no matter the size of the developer, according to the blog post.

Read more about the change.

 

ONE MORE MONTH: An official at a Russian telecommunications watchdog warned that Moscow will block Twitter in one month unless the platform complies with demands to remove banned content.

“Twitter has not properly responded to our requests. If the things go the same way, it will be blocked out of court in a month,” Vadim Subbotin, deputy head of Roskomnadzor, told the Interfax News Agency. 

Twitter declined to comment in response to the Russian warning. 

Subbotin’s comments escalate an ongoing battle between Russia and Twitter. 

Read more here. 

 

MAPPING VACCINE SITES: Apple is updating its maps feature to display COVID-19 vaccination sites, the company said Tuesday. 

Users will be able to see vaccination sites using the search bar in the map feature, by selecting COVID-19 Vaccines in the “find nearby” menu, or by asking Siri, according to a blog post. 

The vaccine location information will be provided from VaccineFinder, a free online service developed by Boston Children’s Hospital. 

The initial rollout includes more than 20,000 locations, and Apple said it is adding more sites in the coming weeks. 

Read more about the effort. 

 

TEEN SAFETY UPDATES: Instagram will start restricting direct messages between teen users and adults they do not follow as part of a broader set of teen-centered safety updates the platform announced Tuesday. 

The feature will send adults who try to message a teen who doesn’t follow them a notification that direct messaging the teen user isn’t an option, Instagram said. 

Why it’s needed: Instagram requires users to be at least 13 years old to make an account. But the company acknowledged that young users sometimes lie about their date of birth. 

The privacy updates, using new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, aim to help keep teens “safer” and apply “age-appropriate” features, according to the announcement. 

The app will also prompt teen users to be more cautious about interactions in their direct messages through safety notices.

Read more here. 

Lighter click: okay?

An op-ed to chew on: Fighting cybercrime begins in the classroom 

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

How Washington fumbled the future (Politico / Leah Nylen)

As Uber avoided paying into unemployment, the federal government helped thousands of its drivers weather the pandemic (Washington Post / Faiz Siddiqui and Andrew Van Dam)

After a bruising lawsuit with Microsoft, Katie Moussouris is fighting for fair pay (The Verge / Russell Brandom)