Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech October 24, 2024 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. In the News Federalist Society (Video): The FCC's Proposal to Regulate Political Ads Using Artificial Intelligence .....The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has initiated a proceeding that proposes to require radio and TV broadcasters as well as cable and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) operators to include a disclaimer on all political advertisements that contain content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The requirement would apply to both candidate and issue ads. The broadcasters of the ads also would be required to include a notice in their online political files disclosing the ad’s use of AI. The FCC’s rulemaking raises serious questions regarding the agency’s statutory authority to adopt the proposed rule and whether the Federal Election Commission has sole authority to administer federal election laws so that the FCC proposal is preempted. Moreover, as a matter of policy, objections have been raised regarding the FCC’s proposal. With the election just weeks away, a panel composed of notable experts discussed and debated the FCC’s proposal. Featuring: Brendan Carr, FCC Commissioner Chris Lewis, President, Public Knowledge Prof. Bradley Smith, Former FEC Chairman; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Professor of Law, Capital University Law School Moderator: Randolph May, President, Free State Foundation Online Speech Platforms Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): From Prof. Michael McConnell: Meta Oversight Board Steps Up To Protect Conservative Political Speech By Eugene Volokh .....I'm delighted to pass along this item from my Hoover Institution colleague Michael McConnell, who is also a professor at Stanford Law School and the co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board: “Increasingly, the most significant gatekeepers for political speech are not elected governments or courts, but the social media companies that control Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, X, and the like. That is why I signed on to co-chair Meta's independent Oversight Board, which handles appeals from users and referrals from the company in high-profile cases from all over the world. Necessarily, the Board cannot take a large number of cases; it decided just over 50 last year and is on track to decide a few more this year. The hope (and I think to some extent the reality) is that these high-profile cases, most of which have reversed Meta's original decision, will have an impact on the content moderation system as a whole.” Candidates and Campaigns Washington Post: American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show By Catherine Belton .....A former deputy Palm Beach County sheriff who fled to Moscow and became one of the Kremlin’s most prolific propagandists is working directly with Russian military intelligence to pump out deepfakes and circulate misinformation that targets Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to Russian documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post. The documents show that John Mark Dougan, who also served in the U.S. Marines and has long claimed to be working independently of the Russian government, was provided funding by an officer from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service. Some of the payments were made after fake news sites he created began to have difficulty accessing Western artificial intelligence systems this spring and he needed an AI generator — a tool that can be prompted to create text, photos and video. Washington Post: U.S. officials say Russia smeared Tim Walz, might stoke post-vote violence By Joseph Menn and David Nakamura .....U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday said Russians seeking to disrupt the U.S. elections created a faked video and other material smearing Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz with abuse allegations and are considering fomenting violence during and after the vote. Reuters: Chinese influence operation targets US down-ballot races, Microsoft says By Christopher Bing and A.J. Vicens .....An army of Chinese-controlled social media bots is attempting to influence voters in Alabama, Texas and Tennessee, while denigrating U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, according to new research published on Wednesday by Microsoft. The operation represents a coordinated interference effort against down-ballot races, experts say, in which the fake accounts are denigrating U.S. Representative Barry Moore of Alabama, U.S. Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and Rubio, all Republicans. Racket News: Trump Camp: British Censorship Group to Be "Investigated From All Angles" By Matt Taibbi and Paul D. Thacker .....The Center for Countering Digital Hate will be “investigated from all angles,” a source from the campaign of Donald Trump says, in response to documents obtained by the Disinformation Chronicle in conjunction with Racket showing “Kill Musk’s Twitter” on CCDH’s monthly agenda notes. The Trump campaign is furious that a group with ties to the new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer is targeting its political allies while parent organization Labour Together openly advises Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. There’s frustration in Trump’s camp after years of resultless probes over alleged foreign assistance. “Everything is going to be investigated,” the spokesperson said. “This will be at the top of the list.” Daily Wire: Every 21st Century Democratic Presidential Nominee Supports Restricting Free Speech By Leif Le Mahieu .....[E]very candidate the Democratic Party has nominated for president since 2000 has actively backed restrictions on free speech online, according to a new analysis from the Media Research Center shared with The Daily Wire. “Since the 2020 election cycle, no less than seven of the most recent 10 presidential nominees have called for censorship and/or government regulation of political speech,” MRC researcher Luis Cornelio found wrote in his analysis. 6 News Richmond: Some reported donors of Richmond campaign say they never contributed money: 'That's pretty baffling' By Tyler Layne .....The campaign for Richmond City Council candidate Tavares Floyd has reported to have raised significantly more money than Floyd's opponents, but some of the donors the Floyd campaign has claimed told CBS 6 they have not made any contributions. For the past month, Floyd has not responded to CBS 6's questions surrounding his campaign finance reporting and instead sent the news station a legal threat. The States Louisiana Illuminator: The Louisiana ethics board is trying to rein in PAC spending. Lawmakers are balking. By Julie O'Donoghue .....The Louisiana Board of Ethics has quietly clamped down on political action committee (PAC) spending for over a year, angering state lawmakers and a campaign advisor to Gov. Jeff Landry. Campaign finance attorneys said the ethics board has started to ask more questions – and possibly launched more investigations – into elected officials’ PAC spending since the middle of 2023. Legislators confirmed in interviews with the Illuminator that they were being told to take precaution when spending PAC money for the time being. “There is considerable interest in this issue that has been developed with respect to some of our clients,” said Gray Sexton, the former general counsel for the ethics board who now specializes in defending elected officials against ethics and campaign finance infractions. Whose PACs the board is scrutinizing and to what extent ethics investigations are taking place isn’t clear. Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. 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