Garland Indicts Russians For Manipulating Public Opinion In 2024 Election

The Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced yesterday a joint effort to use sanctions and criminal charges against what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election. Via NBC News:

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT accused of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York.

"The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda," Garland said.

While the indictment redacted the names of political parties and candidates, it was clear through the documents that the Russians sought to bolster Republican former President Donald Trump and to harm Democratic efforts — who likely would have been Joe Biden at the time.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

US charges five Russian military hackers with targeting Ukraine’s government with destructive malware

The U.S. government indictment demonstrated deep knowledge of the Russian spies' activities, including their real-world meetings at a cafe in Moscow.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Short series app My Drama takes on Character.AI with its new AI companions

Maybe a lack of AI characters is what Quibi got wrong. At least, that’s what one startup appears to believe.  My Drama is a new short series app with over 30 shows, with a majority of them following a soap opera format in order to hook viewers. The app is now launching an AI-powered chatbot […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

X is hiring staff for security and safety after two years of layoffs

The hiring effort comes after X, formerly known as Twitter, laid off 80% of its trust and safety staff since Musk's takeover.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Judge Repeats Ruling: Bribing A Porn Star Is Not Official Act

Common sense shows its face again! Associated Press (via Daily Kos) reporting:

A federal judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, spurning the former ppresident'sattempt at an end-run around the state court where he was convicted and is set to be sentenced in two weeks.

—just hours after TTrump'slawyers asked him to weigh the move—upends the Republican presidential nominee's plan to move the case to federal court so that he could seek to have his conviction overturned in the wake of the U.S. Supreme CCourt's.

Andrew Weissmann spoke to Lawrence O'Donnell Tuesday night, and kudos to both of them for not laughing the whole way through.

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Andrew, let's begin with Judge Hellerstein today, the federal judge in New York, who's the first one to actually issue a ruling based on the Supreme Court's immunity decision, and he said has absolutely nothing to do with Stormy Daniels.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Elmo's Post Of Harris In Commie Garb Backfires Immediately

Elon Musk, the owner of the Bad App, has gone full MAGA, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the tax breaks that would be afforded to him if Donald Trump were to win the election. Musk, who is also known as "that stupid fuck," (many people are saying that, believe me), posted a manipulated AI image of Vice President Kamala Harris dressed in red military garb with the communist symbol of the hammer and sickle, thus breaking the rules on the site he's pretty much destroyed.

Well, it's a good place if you want to play footsie with white nationalists, but for decent people, it's broken. Elon responded to a post with an image of Donald that Harris posted, saying, "Donald Trump vows to be a dictator on day one," adding, "We won't let him."

Musk wrote, "You are lying," even though it's on video, then he separately posted the image of Kamala in communist gear, writing, "Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!??"

That backfired spectacularly.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Volkswagen is rolling out its ChatGPT assistant to the US

Volkswagen is taking its ChatGPT voice assistant experiment on the road. Or more, specifically to vehicles it sells in the United States.  The German automaker announced in January at CES 2024 plans to add an AI-powered chatbot into all Volkswagen models equipped with its IDA voice assistant. But the U.S. was excluded in that initial […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details