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  • Influencers Get Their Final Marching Orders for the Election

    Influencers Get Their Final Marching Orders for the Election

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    Guerrero said that possible opportunities would be jumping on a campaign bus touring Las Vegas and speaking to voters about reproductive rights or to go door-knocking in battleground states. It sounds like the details are still shaking out, but I reached out to the Harris campaign for more information.

    “At the very least, creators should at least be telling our audiences and asking our audiences to vote. I know we feel overwhelmed with the presidential election, but there’s so much more on the ballot in every state and every city too,” says Jeremy Jacobowitz, a NYC food influencer who has worked with the Harris campaign in the past. “I’m still planning a few posts coming up explaining why I’m making the decision that I am for Kamala.”

    On Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Harris campaign set up action hubs in New York City and Los Angeles to create a space for influencers to make get-out-the-vote content and phone-bank from the studios. The creators are supposed to sign up for specific shifts, and they will be given interview spaces outfitted with mics, backgrounds, and on-site production teams to turn around content quickly.

    In an email to those who signed up, the campaign outlined some of its top-performing GOTV content to provide examples for the creators, like voting day reminders, making plans to vote, specific battleground callouts, and videos explaining “what voting means” to the creators.

    Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation met with a group of conservative influencers last week at the Influence America event, including Emily Wilson from Emily Save America, Savannah Chrisley, Sean Mike Kelly, and John McEntee, the founder of the Peter Thiel–backed Right Stuff dating app. CJ Pearson, a 22-year-old conservative creator, hosted the event, where creators strategized how to synchronize their content over the next few weeks, focusing on some of the Republican Party’s favorite policy issues like immigration and the economy.

    “We convened 30 of the most impactful emerging young conservative voices in our movement, with a combined audience of nearly 50 million people, to strategize about how we can actually reach America’s young people where they are,” Pearson told the Daily Mail last week.

    In Instagram stories, the Influence America creators toured the Fox News studios and attended panels led by some of the most popular conservative creators on the internet, including Isabel Brown and Xaviaer DuRousseau. Pearson told me he was developing the event as a “Ycombinator” of conservative creators that was bringing in a variety of speakers to educate the group of around 30 influencers, like a former DHS worker who will talk about how to speak effectively on issues like immigration to their combined 50 million followers up until Election Day.

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    Makena Kelly

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  • Donald Trump Has Pushed the Limits of Being Too Online

    Donald Trump Has Pushed the Limits of Being Too Online

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    It’s telling that Trump’s pet-eating protestations have inspired only a limp defense, outside of his running mate, JD Vance, doubling and tripling down. The ABC moderators are biased for saying it’s not true. One guy told the cops he maybe saw some Haitians holding some geese one time. OK, well.

    Trump’s internet addiction is well-documented. He majority-owns the platform Truth Social, where his account constantly posts and reposts, absorbing and amplifying memes with the ferocity of an unemployed edgelord. His online experience is a bubble within a bubble, with a language and reference points unto themselves. Trump is now fully enmeshed in the manosphere, giving audience to influencers like Logan Paul and Adin Ross, a self-perpetuating cycle of bro-dom. The ouroboros tightens to the point that baby executions become an accepted reality rather than an obvious untruth. The more fragmented the internet becomes, the more jarring mass exposure to certain corners of it can be to the uninitiated.

    At least, that’s the theory. In truth, we don’t yet know how Trump’s debate performance landed with undecided voters, or whether it will make any difference in the long run. He’s too online, sure, but maybe it’s all relative. Maybe we’re all so inundated with internet garbage that, for a majority of people, conspiracies bleed inexorably into gospel. Maybe the most alarming outcome of a major presidential candidate personifying 4chan is that it works.

    The Chatroom

    Conspiracy theories weren’t the only headlines out of last night’s debate. We also saw Taylor Swift endorse Kamala Harris shortly after the closing arguments. As you might expect, this created a frenzy online, complete with a surfeit of Brittany Mahomes memes. (I’ll spare you from the lore if you’re not already caught up.)

    Do you think Swift’s backing could have a tangible impact on the race? Are there any other celebrity or influencer endorsements that could sway the election?

    Send me an email at mail@wired.com, and let me know what you think!

    💬 Leave a comment below this article.

    WIRED Reads

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    What Else We’re Reading

    🔗 An Ex-Tenet Reporter Blasted YouTube for Banning Him—But He Secretly Deleted His Own Channel: The fallout from the Tenet Media scandal—in which Russian state media allegedly financed unwitting far-right influencers—continues to spread. (The Daily Dot)

    🔗 What If Trump Wins?: Rolling Stone goes deep on the “potentially catastrophic consequences for the American experiment” that a second Trump term portends. (Rolling Stone)

    🔗 Melinda French Gates Embraces a New Era and Gets Political—Even When It’s Uncomfortable: This profile of Melinda French Gates and her company Pivotal Ventures is an illuminating look at the politics of philanthropy. (Vanity Fair)

    The Download

    Check out the podcast today! Makena Kelly and Tim Marchman, WIRED’s director of politics, security, and science, joined our host, Leah Feiger, late Tuesday night to discuss the memorable moments, the policies and, of course, all the conspiracies that came up in the debate.

    That’s it for today—thanks again for subscribing. Makena will be back next week, and you can get in touch with her via email, Instagram, X, and Signal at makenakelly.32.

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    Brian Barrett

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  • Reid Hoffman Hasn’t Given Up on Biden Just Yet

    Reid Hoffman Hasn’t Given Up on Biden Just Yet

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    Reid. Very much. A lot of people are following the calculus, which is that Trump is quite operative and you can buy influence with him. The crypto industry is all about the economics on this stuff. They’ll sort it out if it’s Biden, but they can buy influence with Trump. I think there’s a big move from the crypto side to being pro-Trump.

    Makena: Does Biden’s debate performance risk alienating more donors and people in Silicon Valley?

    Reid: Sadly, yes. Silicon Valley, maybe even more vigorously than most places in the world, tends to focus on leaders. Who’s the founder? Who’s the CEO? It’s how we operate. I’ve been working to remind them about how the CEO is stronger because of their team composition.

    Now it’s not just how do they stand up and speak in a debate, but how do they compare a strong team. You have to remind them it’s Gina Raimondo, Pete Buttigieg, and Jennifer Granholm. They think Lina Khan is terrible. I agree. But the overall team, including the chief of staff and all the rest, when you compare that with Trump, [Trump’s] overall team is terrible.

    Makena: But another part of investing is betting that a company will be successful. In this case, donating to the campaign is betting that Biden can win. Are donors starting to withhold their support over doubts Biden could beat Trump?

    Reid: It’s definitely caused a bunch of turmoil. I have seen emails from people in Silicon Valley who say they won’t donate more until they have more confidence. It’s a negative factor. Unequivocally, part of what I’m trying to be a voice for in this stuff is to say elections are a composition of negative factors and positive.

    The fact is, people calling for Biden to step down should, frankly, call for both Biden and Trump to step down. You can say one should step down because he’s slow and the other should step down because he’s a lying felon.

    [Last month, Democratic donors Lauren Powell Jobs and Ron Conway were looking for ways to convince Biden to drop out, according to The New York Times.]

    Makena: What I’m hearing is that some donors aren’t completely dropping their support for Biden but are taking a beat to reevaluate. But does this go far enough to turn people toward Trump?

    Reid: Absolutely zero. Part of the reason you hear such loud complaints about how Biden should release his delegates and open up the convention is because people are so frenetic about the dangers of Trump winning.

    Makena: When it comes to folks like David Sacks supporting Trump, what is it that you think these people are hoping to receive in the end?

    Reid: Ultimately, influence. Whether it’s crypto-favorable laws, ambassadorships in different countries, an ability to go to the White House, or maybe getting a Rush Limbaugh Medal of Freedom, it’s all about trying to buy influence.

    Makena: What do you think the Biden campaign needs to do to counteract all of this?

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    Makena Kelly

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  • How Influencers and Algorithms Are Creating Bespoke Realities for Everyone

    How Influencers and Algorithms Are Creating Bespoke Realities for Everyone

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    David: Key to these factions are influencers. How have they become so powerful?

    Renée: They have the followers. Even conspiracy theorist influencers have followings in the millions at this point. Mainstream media doesn’t necessarily get that kind of readership on a given article or viewers on a given piece of content. But the influencer is algorithmically pushed into your feed and they have that ability to speak back, to engage in a way that media brands often don’t.

    David: How important are algorithms in helping these influencers get their message out?

    Renée: The influencer needs to be seen by their audience, and having that relationship with your audience is key, but that’s always mediated through what the algorithm is going to push to people, particularly as more and more of that in-feed real estate is determined not by who you follow at all, but by what it thinks you want to see.

    David: In your book you write about Ali Alexander, an influencer who helped organize the Stop the Steal movement in 2020. How have people like Alexander become so influential?

    Renée: People who are not Trump supporters might see him as clownish, but among the group that he’s speaking to, they trust him, they believe him, and he compels them to take action. It’s really important to realize the effect that influencer relationships have in shaping reality or driving people to act in a way. They really come up from the crowd and they’re given their power because the crowd continues to engage with them and support them and drive them.

    David: Is this what Trump is doing?

    Renée: What you see with Trump over and over again is what we call this bottom-up rumor mill, where people are chattering about things, they say it, they post it, they tag him, he retweets them, then they have the benefit of that additional clout within the community. They’ve done their part, they’re fighting for the cause. You see him very deftly working this system on Truth Social [where] he’s constantly amplifying fans and followers and engaging very much among the online supporter base.

    David: What are we missing about our current information environment?

    Renée: What I find most alarming is that people have the ability to just create reality by making something trend, to reinforce over and over and over again these conspiracy theories. You do have this increasingly divergent set of realities where there’s a deep conviction built up over many, many years of reinforcing the same tropes and stories. You can’t just correct that with a fact check.

    David: And following the demise of the Stanford Internet Observatory, there are even less people fact-checking this stuff. Who or what was to blame for your departure from Stanford?

    Renée: The chilling effect of congressional inquiries and associated lawfare, and the politicization of research, is real. Institutions need to see the writing on the wall. We have seen these tactics in the past, such as during attacks on climate scientists a decade ago, yet the playbook continues to work. If spurious investigations into politically inconvenient findings succeed in cowing institutions, there will only be more spurious investigations.

    The Chatroom

    Where do you get your political news from these days (aside from WIRED Politics, of course)? Do you stick to traditional media (newspapers, broadcast TV) or are you subscribed to political newsletters, podcasts, and social feeds? Do you consciously make an effort to get news from different perspectives? Or do you think you are living in an information echo chamber?

    I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment on the site, or send me an email at mail@wired.com.

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    David Gilbert

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  • Michael Cohen Can’t Stop Livestreaming on TikTok

    Michael Cohen Can’t Stop Livestreaming on TikTok

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    “I give no credence to the ABC News opinion piece,” Cohen responded when I asked him about it.

    While the “Michael Cohen Live Show” appears to have launched recently, Cohen has been talking about Trump for years: he has released two books documenting his relationship with Trump and also hosts and cohosts two podcasts with the MeidasTouch guys.

    On Cohen’s Patreon, a club for listeners of the Cohen and Meidas Beatdown Club podcast, he’ll occasionally hold Zoom calls with paid supporters. There’s more than 1,100 of them, and the lowest tier requires a $10-per-month subscription, equivalent to at least $11,000 per month. That’s not counting the $50, $150, or the $500 subscriptions (or the TikTok gifts). At the beginning of these calls, Cohen and Ben Meiselas, a MeidasTouch cofounder, asks followers to “put up their dukes” and mime a few boxing punches.

    On Wednesday, I reached out to the MeidasTouch folks to gauge the extent of their relationship with Cohen. They didn’t immediately respond to comment.

    Whatever the details of that relationship, Cohen has created a massive megaphone for himself online by collabing with Meidas and engaging directly with his fans. He’s basically building his own media network, which is a trend we’ve seen among politicians and pundits since the last media cycle with the likes of Rudy Giulian and Tucker Carlson launching podcasts and creating boutique news programs online. And because of how screwed the internet is, you can’t just post if you’re wanting to break through the noise. Cohen’s got to do a little bit of everything and pray he doesn’t hurt his credibility.

    The Chatroom

    Last week, I asked you all to send in your thoughts on the new law that could ban TikTok in the US. You sent in plenty of thoughtful comments and emails. Here’s one that was incredibly kind and goes big-picture on what we were discussing last week.

    From Barry:

    “The summary: I disagree with the idea of banning TikTok only because of its China connection, without any proof.

    The details: I turn 83 this June, know nothing about TikTok, and next to nothing about social media entirely—I read Facebook postings of friends and relatives, but post nothing myself. My impression of social media is that it’s an amalgam of pet tricks, incompetent dancing, influencers and disinformation. It’s a lot of mass entertainment by amateurs, and that’s OK.

    At this point I could go on a rant about the devolution of the internet, politics, cryptocurrency, and more generally, democracy and society, but that’s why I subscribe to Wired—for Paul Ford, Steven Levy, etc. Leave that to the pros.”

    Happy early birthday, Barry, and thanks for your thoughts!

    Over the next week, I’m going to be digging into all of the Federal Election Commission filings for tech super PACs and campaigns that have been stacking up in my inbox. I’ll report back with what I find next week. But I’m curious, is there anything I should keep an eye out for? You can find a lot in these filings—like which influencer management companies politicians are using or which big campaigns big tech PACs are sending their money.

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    Makena Kelly

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  • Team Biden Is Posting Through the Looming TikTok Ban

    Team Biden Is Posting Through the Looming TikTok Ban

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    I mentioned this in our first newsletter, but Representative Jeff Jackson from North Carolina had to issue a full-out YouTube-style apology video after his TikTok followers figured out he voted in support of this bill. Jackson’s posted to TikTok only a handful of times since the incident.

    Biden’s relationship with the app hasn’t really seemed to change much, however, and his campaign intends to keep using the platform to reach voters throughout the election.

    “A fragmented media environment requires us to show up and meet voters where they are—and that includes online,” a Biden campaign official told NBC News on Wednesday. “TikTok is one of many places we’re making sure our content is being seen by voters.”

    It’s too early to tell exactly which way the wind is blowing as far as public sentiment is concerned, but a lot of people aren’t thrilled.

    “If [Biden] wants to earn the trust of young people back, which he has repeatedly betrayed, he needs to be open and transparent about the reasoning behind this ban,” Luke Mullen, an actor, filmmaker, and activist, told me on Wednesday. “So far he’s said nothing, which feels like a belittlement of our intelligence. Young Americans aren’t stupid.”

    Beyond a lack of transparency, some creators and activists have told me that they feel like the ban is a direct response to the activism happening on the platform.

    “Regardless of the reason for the ban, the fact that TikTok specifically, as opposed to other social media sites that misuse user data, is being targeted sends a message to young people that their speech is being censored,” Victoria Hammett, deputy executive director and programming director for Gen Z for Change, told me over the phone. “Regardless of whether or not that is the reason for the ban, that is clearly the message that Congress is sending to young people.”

    If TikTok were to disappear, many of these creators and activists could lose their platforms.

    “I’ve personally witnessed the power and increased voice young people have through specifically TikTok, and getting rid of our one place for that would be troubling to say the least,” says Mullen.

    For now? Biden’s just posting through it.

    The Chatroom

    I’m going to keep it short this week. How do you feel about this TikTok bill? Are you a creator or small business owner who is worried about reaching your fans or customers? Are you part of a campaign or political group rethinking your entire media strategy this year? Or maybe you’re a TikTok user who receives a lot of their news on the app—let me know!

    With your permission, I’d like to include some of your thoughts and stories in the newsletter next week. Leave a comment on the site, or send me an email at mail@wired.com.

    💬 Leave a comment below this article.

    WIRED Reads

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    What Else We’re Reading

    🔗 As Meta flees politics, campaigns rely on new tricks to reach voters: Campaigns across the political spectrum have seen engagement on Meta-owned platforms tank over the past year. (The Washington Post)

    🔗 Oracle met with Senate aides about TikTok data storage after House ban passed: The clock is ticking for TikTok, and Oracle is already freaked out that a ban on the app could impact its business. (CNBC)

    🔗 ‘Thunder Run’: Behind Lawmakers’ Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill: It may have seemed like the TikTok bill came out of nowhere, but a small group of lawmakers have been quietly crafting it for almost a year. (The New York Times)

    The Download

    It’s going to be all TikTok all the time for the next few weeks, I fear. If you’re looking for a great primer on all of the trickle-down effects this law will have, you should check out our latest Politics Lab podcast episode. I discuss it all with my editor and host of the show Leah Feiger and my colleague Vittoria Elliott!

    You can listen to the show wherever you download podcasts. Go subscribe! If the next few weeks are as chaotic as this one, you just might miss it.

    That’s it for today—thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X and Signal at makenakelly.32.

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    Makena Kelly

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  • A Topsy-Turvy Online Election

    A Topsy-Turvy Online Election

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    Hey, everyone! Welcome to the first edition of the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter. I’m Makena Kelly, a senior politics writer at WIRED, and I’m so glad you’re here.

    After the 2020 US election, the rhetoric of the internet spilled out into the real world with violent consequences. In the years since, those drumbeats have only grown louder, the misinformation more bleak, the conspiracies more unhinged, the technology more enabling. It’s a dizzying backdrop already—and it’s only March. I’m here to help you understand not only what’s happening out there now, but what comes next.


    This is an edition of the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter. Sign up now to get it in your inbox every week.

    Politics has never been stranger—or more online. WIRED Politics Lab is your guide through the vortex of extremism, conspiracies, and disinformation.


    The State of the Internet

    The web is hardly recognizable compared with four years ago. Companies like Meta have all but given up on news and political content after being grilled by Congress over disinformation and alleged censorship more times than I can remember. Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, laid off most of the site’s trust and safety teams, and turned the platform into a wasteland of conspiracies and disinformation. On top of all that, AI-generated robocalls and spam are filling up voicemail inboxes and news feeds, challenging regulators and social networks like never before. And TikTok has grown into a powerful cultural and political force that even the Biden campaign team has joined, despite the national security risks some intelligence officials and lawmakers have suggested in the past.

    Campaigns have had to adapt: “I think the fact that the internet has become more personalized in the last four years just means we need to play the game a little bit differently and try a bunch of new things,” Rob Flaherty, deputy campaign manager for the Biden reelection campaign, told me about its decision to join TikTok. Long-shot candidate RFK Jr. has leaned on podcasts, like The Joe Rogan Experience, and influencers on Instagram and TikTok to get his message out to voters.

    Still, everyone heard the news last week: The House passed a bill that would force Bytedance, TikTok’s China-based owner, to sell off the app or have it banned in the US. Which makes it a little wild that campaigns are going all-in on a platform that might not exist, and that their own colleagues are trying to destroy.

    While TikTok may face an untimely end, other platforms are getting resurrected. My colleague William Turton and I reported on Wednesday that Parler, one of the first censorship-free social media alternatives to Facebook and Twitter, is preparing to relaunch after being offline for nearly a year after it was purchased by a right-leaning marketing firm. Just this week, Parler returned to iOS and is expecting to be approved for the Google Play Store later in the week.

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    Makena Kelly

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