Happy Tuesday! This is your Tech Drop, my weekly compilation of the top stories from the past week at the intersection of technology and politics.
Trump meme pieces cause rift in MAGA world
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts aren’t happy with Donald and Melania Trump’s new “meme coins” — essentially glorified trading cards. Digital tokens seem like an ideal way for anyone, including foreign governments, to funnel money to the Trump family. This is one of the reasons why some experts have said that the projects — launched a few days after Trump’s inauguration — AI am ripe for blatant corruption.
And even some of Trump’s biggest fans are lamenting the decision. The Wall Street Journal published an article which cites Trump-supporting crypto bros who fear the move will delegitimize the industry. On Monday, the Rev. Lorenzo Sewell, the pastor who gave the blessing at Trump’s swearing-in, announced that he had also flipped a coin. That probably doesn’t help with the whole legitimacy thing.
Learn more about The Wall Street Journal.
TikTok’s legal limbo
Trump’s executive order demanding the postponement of the TikTok ban, which was set to take effect this week in the United States, appears to have saved the app for the moment. At least, that’s what Trump and the app’s owners want us to believe.
But Business Insider published an article raising questions about Trump’s authority to single-handedly overturn a law that received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court.
Learn more about Business Insider.
Scary “monitoring prices”
In one of its final acts under the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission and its then-chairwoman, Lina Khan, revealed the first findings of the market study on “price surveillance” of the agency. The report shows how companies can manipulate prices based on personal data. According to the FTC, “details such as a person’s precise location or browsing history may be frequently used to target individual consumers offering different prices for the same goods and services.”
Learn more about FTC.
Kristi Noem worries about disinformation projects
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who Trump nominated to head the Department of Homeland Security, said she wants to end the department’s efforts to combat disinformation campaigns by foreign actors targeting Americans, thus asserting that she wanted to leave Americans vulnerable to manipulation.
Learn more on the ReidOut blog.
Biden’s FCC Chairman Warns Against Trump
On her way out, outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel warned of Trump’s efforts to suppress free speech and freedom of the press. In an article last week, I wrote about the statement she released while dismissing several complaints from activist groups seeking to punish media outlets for coverage they didn’t like.
Rosenworcel compared Trump’s attacks on the First Amendment to actions taken by Presidents Richard Nixon and John Adams, and she also cited his desire to “revoke the licenses of television stations because he disagrees with their content and coverage” – noting that the FCC “has a duty to uphold the Constitution. »
Learn more on the ReidOut blog.
Bigwigs sneer at Sewell’s remarks
The aforementioned pastor, Sewell, has drawn criticism: including from MSNBC’s Joy Reid — for his inaugural blessing, which borrowed from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and relied on what appeared to be exaggerated black preacher affect. One thing I noticed? Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick apparently found the performance quite funny as they watched and snickered in the background.
To me, the sight — MAGA-aligned elites laughing during a King-inspired performance on MLK Day — embodies some of the disrespect black people expect from Trump and his movement.
A far-right influencer speaks… gibberish
Far-right influencer Curtis Yarvin – who pushed racist pseudosciencepromoted the idea of dictatorial leadership and was name verified by JD Vance – recently gave an interview to the New York Times. The interview, in which Yarvin explains his belief that the Civil War improved no one’s lives — including those of slaves — is a perfect example of how pseudo-intellectual jargon and obfuscation can be used to mask intolerance.
Learn more about The New York Times.
