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DNC CTO talks disinformation: The DNCs chief technology officer said the party is seeing as much disinformation from domestic sources as from foreign ones, which she called deeply troubling.

Meanwhile, on the RNC: The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee are sourcing Americans answers on whether social media companies are trying to help Joe Biden win the election and whether Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is out to make the president lose.

5G experimentation: The Defense Department is doling out another $600 million in grants to test 5G applications, with the help of private telecoms like AT&T and Nokia, at military bases across the country.

AAAAAND EXHALE. ITS FRIDAY; WELCOME TO MORNING TECH! Im your host, Alexandra Levine.

Got a news tip? Write to Alexandra at [emailprotected], or follow along @Ali_Lev and @alexandra.levine. An event for our calendar? Send details to [emailprotected]. Anything else? Full team info below. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

A message from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

Critically important but commonly misunderstood: Todays antitrust laws are comprehensive, vigilantly guarding against anti-competitive conduct and problematic mergers. These laws, designed to root out misconduct, have cultivated economic growth since their enactment. WATCH: Antitrust Explained in 60 seconds.

DNC CTO: THE LIES ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE COUNTRY Nellwyn Thomas has a lot on her plate. As chief technology officer for the Democratic National Committee, shes responsible for improving its tech workflow, protecting it from hackers, countering disinformation operations, and providing IT and security advice to dozens of state parties and hundreds of campaigns. But what worries her the most right now, my colleagues at Morning Cybersecurity report, is the rise of domestic disinformation operations that rival or exceed the scope and efficacy of foreign activities, such as Russias infamous 2016 interference. The threats were seeing at this point are just as much domestic as they are foreign, and that is deeply troubling, Thomas said on Thursday during an Institute for Security and Technology webinar.

President Donald Trump and members of his administration and reelection campaign have relentlessly pushed false claims about the security of mail-in voting, the extent of voter fraud and the overall integrity of the 2020 election. That is incredibly difficult to combat, when its not just about China or Russia or Iran, but about other Americans, Thomas said. And so that is certainly an area that we're very focused on and very concerned about.

Because a major goal of disinformation campaigns is to discourage participation in the democratic process, voter suppression goes hand-in-hand with more traditional election security issues such as cyberattacks and social media propaganda. Thomas has directed the DNCs tech team to document instances of potential voter suppression at polling places in order to make sure that we can track those, remediate them and in some cases litigate them after the fact. These things are related, she said, and all part of a common thread of outside actors, foreign and domestic, trying to undermine trust in our electoral processes and trust in our democratic politicians.

TRUMP HQS TWITTER ACCOUNTABILITY SURVEY The Trump camp has launched a survey to take American voters temperature on alleged GOP bias by Twitter. The Official Twitter Accountability Survey poses (somewhat repetitive) questions about whether the platform purposefully silences conservatives; fact-checking posts amounts to free speech violations; social media companies are trying to help Joe Biden win the election; and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants Trump to lose.

All about that consent: While the survey seeks to reaffirm Trumps longstanding accusations that tech platforms discriminate against conservatives, another goal seems to be getting the greenlight to robocall voters. Survey participants consent to receiving autodialed and automated calls and texts from groups affiliated with the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and the Republican National Committee.

Sound familiar? The White House similarly created an online tipline last year where people could share stories of suspected political bias by social media companies, an effort that raised privacy advocates hackles by requesting a host of personal information.

PENTAGON ANNOUNCES MORE 5G TESTING AT MILITARY BASES The Defense Department on Thursday announced another $600 million in grants set to test next-generation wireless applications at five U.S. military bases in Utah, Washington, Georgia, California and Nevada, which the department calls the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. This is part of its ongoing 5G experimentation.

The testing will focus on a range of 5G uses including augmented and virtual reality applications as well as how to develop systems that will let the military dynamically share its 3.1-3.45 GHz band airwaves, now used for airborne radar systems, with the commercial sector. (Thats under study at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.) Companies like AT&T and Nokia are helping with efforts at the bases. The Pentagon holds a vast store of 5G-friendly airwaves, which the wireless industry has long sought to tap in some fashion.

Looking ahead, the department will begin testing on seven more military bases in the coming year, Michael Kratsios, the Pentagons acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, told reporters.

FACEBOOK: WE WORKED WITH THE FEDS ON MICHIGAN KIDNAP PLOT The social network helped tip off federal law enforcement to six militia activists alleged kidnapping conspiracy targeting Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the company said Thursday. "We proactively reached out and cooperated with the FBI early in this ongoing investigation," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement, adding that Facebooks outreach to the feds here started more than six months back.

The social network is named three times in the unsealed FBI affidavit, which said the suspects communicated via private Facebook pages and encrypted group chats about their planned attack on the governor, whose pandemic-related shutdowns had angered right-wing activists. (Its unclear whether the encrypted communications occurred on any Facebook platforms.)

One July 28 post to a private Facebook group read, in part, "We about to be busy ladies and gentlemen... This is where the Patriot shows up." That was particularly ominous because, the feds say, the suspect had earlier that day been heard on a phone call narrowing down attack sites to Whitmer's western Michigan vacation home and official summer residence.

WITH TECHS HELP, MONEY POT FOR VACCINES FOR POOR COUNTRIES GROWS Leading tech and media companies are among the contributors to a global fund set up to pay for lower- and middle-income countries coronavirus vaccines when they become available. The Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment has secured about $1.8 billion of its initial fundraising goal of $2 billion by the end of the year, Gavi said. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, gave $30 million, while the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok contributed $5 million, which were matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with $5 million. (The Gates Foundation had separately put in $106 million.)

The recipients: The funding will support the procurement of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines for 92 countries eligible for the AMC. Those include all economies with gross national income per capita under $4,000, plus other World Bank International Development Association-eligible economies, among them countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, Gavi said. At least $5 billion more will be needed next year to procure doses as they become available.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was named board chairman for The Business Council, a learning, networking and best-practice sharing organization of top global CEOs, succeeding Nike President and CEO John Donahoe. The Competitive Carriers Association has welcomed several new members in 2020, including SpaceX, Cisco, Fujitsu, Rakuten and Samsung; more here.

A message from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

In recent years, some politicians have pushed for changes to antitrust laws that seek to break up companies across industries simply because of their size; essentially penalizing success. Such changes would leave government enforcers with too much control, allowing them to pick winners and losers in our economy. This would strip away consumers power in the market, cripple innovation, and undermine job creation and economic growth. WATCH: 60 second explainer on Americas antitrust laws.

ICYMI: Facebook has banned the U.S. marketing firm that was behind a campaign to disseminate deceptive political content on behalf of Turning Point Action, a political advocacy group for young conservatives with ties to President Donald Trump, Steven reports.

Becoming an ex-Bezos: The Inside Story of MacKenzie Scott, the Mysterious 60-Billion-Dollar Woman, by Stephanie Clifford.

Twitter trouble: A federal judge in California has ordered that Twitter reveal the identity of an anonymous user who allegedly fabricated an FBI document to spread a conspiracy theory about the killing of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who died in 2016, NPR reports.

Trump vs. World, the Sequel: What would four more years of Trump look like for China, trade, democracy and other issues? Read POLITICOs special report on how a second term could reshape the globe.

New privacy controls floated as CCPA improvement for consumers: Privacy-minded companies and consumer groups are testing a new, simpler way for people to exercise their rights under Californias landmark Privacy Act, Katy Murphy reports. They hope [it] will eventually be widely used, honored by companies and enforced by the attorney general.

QAnon and on: A Facebook Ban Won't Stop QAnon, WIRED reports.

M&A freeze?: While much remains uncertain about the federal governments ambitious case against big tech, at least one outcome seems highly likely: Tech giants wont be able to buy their way to growth anytime soon, WSJ reports.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Bob King ([emailprotected], @bkingdc), Heidi Vogt ([emailprotected], @HeidiVogt), Nancy Scola ([emailprotected], @nancyscola), Steven Overly ([emailprotected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ([emailprotected], @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima ([emailprotected], @viaCristiano), Alexandra S. Levine ([emailprotected], @Ali_Lev), and Leah Nylen ([emailprotected], @leah_nylen).

TTYL.

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What's top of mind for the DNC's chief technology officer? - Politico

KARACHI: In sharp reaction to the governments decision of banning TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service, social media celebrity Hareem Shah on Saturday slammed the restriction and called it a move to divert the publics attention from real issues, such as wheat flour crisis.

As you all know that TikTok has been banned and the reason thats been given for it is behayai (vulgarity or indecent content). I think thats not a solid reason. Its an entertainment app. If theres criminal content on it then the administrators [those who run it] of the app block it themselves, the popular TikToker said.

Instead of banning it, they [the government] should identify those who are involved in criminal or vulgar acts so that they could be punished and behayai is eliminated. In the US they banned the app by giving a solid reason, which was their national security. If there is a national security issue in Pakistan, then its right. But vulgarity is not a reason. I will give you an example: when your fingernails grow big you cut your nails, not the entire hand, she maintained.

Calls for imposition of Islamic system if vulgarity needs to be controlled

Ms Shah received a volley of questions from journalists and answered all of them with poise and understanding at a press conference on Saturday held at the Karachi Press Club to elicit her opinion on the governments ban on TikTok app.

There are different institutions such as the Censor Board in Pakistan who can do this job well. You will find people with a positive attitude to life as well as those with a negative one everywhere. If you look at it, then there is material on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram too which is not good for the countrys reputation. India and the US had issues with China so they banned the app. If you are out to put an end to vulgarity you need to enforce the Islamic system (Islami qanoon nafiz karein) in the country.

In reply to a question, she said TikTok brought out talents of people; how could one snatch that from them. According to her, behayai is something that makes a person move away from imaan. Behayai contains many things.

Answering a question, she said behayai committed by man or woman, either way, was condemnable. Women compared to men have become the focus of attention more if something bad happens. Who is raping women? Men. This is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and [yet] a woman cant go out with her children. Why cant you talk about that? What recently happened on Motorway, when a woman was raped, was done by men.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020

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TikTok star terms ban move to divert public attention from issues - DAWN.com

Twitter said on Friday it will remove tweets calling for people to interfere with the U.S. election process or implementation of election results, including through violence, as the company also announced more restrictions to slow the spread of misinformation.

Twitter said in a blog post that, from next week, users will get a prompt pointing them to credible information before they can retweet content that has been labeled as misleading.

It said it would add more warnings and restrictions on tweets with misleading information labels from USpolitical figures like candidates and campaigns, as well as US-based accounts with more than 100,000 followers or that get "significant engagement."

Twitter, which recently told Reuters it was testing how to make its labeling more obvious and direct, said people will have to tap through warnings to see these tweets. Users can also only 'quote tweet' this content, as likes, retweets and replies will be turned off.

Twitter says it has labeled thousands of misleading posts, though most attention has been on the labels applied to tweets by USPresident Donald Trump. Twitter also said it would label tweets that falsely claim a win for any candidate.

The company announced several temporary steps to slow amplification of content: for example, from Oct. 20 to at least the end of the U.S. election week, global users pressing "retweet" will be directed first to the "quote tweet" button to encourage people to add their own commentary.

It will also stop surfacing trending topics without added context, and will stop people seeing "liked by" recommendations from people they do not know in their timeline.

Twitter's decision to hit the brakes on automated recommendations contrasts with the approach at Facebook, which is amping up promotion of its groups product despite concerns about extremism in those spaces.

Social media companies are under pressure to combat election-related misinformation and prepare for the possibility of violence or poll place intimidation around the Nov. 3 vote.

Reuters has reported that Republicans are mobilizing thousands of volunteers to watch early voting sites and ballot drop boxes to find evidence to back up Trump's unsubstantiated complaints about widespread voter fraud.

On Wednesday, Facebook said it would ban calls for poll watching using "militarized language."

Thomson Reuters 2020

Should the government explain why Chinese apps were banned? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Read more:
Twitter Imposes Restrictions, More Warning Labels Ahead of US Election - Gadgets 360

Facebook on Thursday said it is cracking down on private groups where hate or misinformation is shared among members.

The move comes amid a wider crack down on malicious and false content at the social networking giant which has led people to turn to private groups of like-minded members who can share content that is not available to the wider Facebook community.

"People turn to Facebook Groups to connect with others who share their interests, but even if they decide to make a group private, they have to play by the same rules as everyone else," Facebook vice president of engineering Tom Alison said in a blog post.

Alison said Facebook's community standards "apply to public and private groups, and our proactive detection tools work across both."

Facebook uses artificial intelligence to automatically scan posts, even in private groups, taking down pages that repeatedly break its rules or that are set up in violation of the social network's standards.

More than a million groups have been taken down in the past year for violating hate policies, according to Alison.

In the past year, Facebook has removed about 1.5 million pieces of content in groups for violating its policies on organised hate, with 91 percent of those posts found by automated software systems, according to Alison.

Over that same period, the leading social network has taken down about 12 million pieces of content in groups for violating policies on hate speech, 87 percent of which was found proactively.

Facebook last month said it has removed hundreds of groups tied to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and imposed restrictions on nearly 2,000 more as part of a crackdown on stoking violence.

The moves, which were made across both Facebook and Instagram, were against accounts tied to "offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon," the social media platform said in a blog post.

Under rules tightened on Thursday, administrators or moderators of groups taken down for rule-breaking will be temporarily blocked from forming new groups at Facebook.

People tagged for violating social network standards in groups will need to get moderator or administrator permission for any new posts for 30 days, and if what is cleared for sharing continues to break the rules the entire group will be removed, according to Alison.

Facebook will also start "archiving" groups that been without administrators for a long time, meaning they still exist but don't appear in searches and members can't post anything.

And, to promote getting information from authoritative sources, Facebook will no longer show health-themed groups in recommendation results.

Facebook has been struggling with hoaxes and misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to give users well-sourced information about the health emergency.

Is Android One holding back Nokia smartphones in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

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Facebook to Curb Private Groups Spreading Hate, Misinformation - Gadgets 360

The Commerce Department announced Friday morning that it will ban U.S. business transactions with Chinese-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration continues to look at a deal in whichOraclewould take a minority stake in TikTok and become a "trusted technology partner" for the company in the U.S.

When asked about the TikTok deal during a press conference Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump said it could happen "quickly," and pointed to the U.S. companies involved, like Oracle. He also brought up Microsoft as a bidder, even though Microsoft said it backed out of the deal last Sunday after its bid was rejected.

The Commerce Department's announcement leaves room for a deal to go through before the Sunday deadline, and it could be an aggressive move from the Trump administration to push for its original intention to force TikTok to become fully owned by a U.S. company.

"At the President's direction, we have taken significant action to combat China's malicious collection of American citizens' personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations." Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in the announcement.

The department's move is an enforcement ofTrump's original executive order fromAug. 6that gave TikTok 45 days to sell its U.S. business to an American company or face a ban in this country. The end of the 45-day period is Sunday. WeChat, one of the world's most popular social messaging apps, is owned by the Chinese company Tencent. TikTok's parent company is Beijing-based ByteDance. Trump's executive order cited national security concerns over the Chinese government's access to user data in those apps to justify the potential ban.

A picture of U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on a smartphone in front of displayed Tik Tok and WeChat logos in this illustration taken September 18, 2020.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

The Commerce statement said that starting Sunday, U.S. companies will be banned from distributing WeChat and TikTok, meaning the two major mobile app stores run by Apple and Google will have to remove the apps from their libraries. The statement also blocks U.S. companies from providing services through WeChat "for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S."

But the announcement also lays out a separate time frame specific to TikTok, giving it until Nov. 12 to resolve the U.S. national security concerns.The rules that start Nov. 12 include provisions that block U.S. companies from providing internet hosting and services for TikTok. This could be directed at the deal being negotiated between TikTok and Oracle, which would provide cloud services for TikTok if Trump approves, and could give TikTok and Oracle more time to hammer out a deal that will satisfy the president.

In an interview with Fox Business on Friday, Ross said the bans will affect TikTok and WeChat differently at first. He said TikTok will still function, but users will not be able to upgrade the app.

"It's not doing the same thing to TikTok as to WeChat," Ross told Fox. "As to TikTok, it's just upgrades, maintenance things like that, that would be shut down at this stage. The real shutdown would come after Nov. 12 in the event that there is not another transaction. So it's very different how the way the two are being handled."

Commerce Department officials who spoke with reporters on the condition of anonymity Friday slightly contradicted Ross' statements on Fox Business and said neither TikTok nor WeChat will be available to download as of midnight Sunday.

The officials also said that WeChat may continue to function for users who have it installed on their devices, but there may be problems since WeChat uses services run by U.S. companies to deliver data in the app. The officials said TikTok will still function after Sunday if you already have it on your device, but it will cease to function after the Nov. 12 deadline unless a deal is reached before then or Trump rescinds his executive order.

WeChat is a popular marketing and sales tool for U.S. companies primarily in China, but around the world as well. With U.S. social apps like Facebook and Instagram banned in China, WeChat is the primary app people use for social networking and e-commerce. It's also popular withpeople in the U.S. to communicate with people in China, since U.S. apps are banned in China.

TikTok's Nov. 12 deadline is more than a week after the Nov. 3 presidential election, meaning Trump won't be accused of banning a popular app used by 100 million Americans before they cast their votes. In an interview posted on Snapchat last month, Trump confidant Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said he urged the president not to ban TikTok.

In an emailed statement, TikTok said it had already made numerous concessions to address security concerns raised by the Trump Administration, including choosing a U.S. company to host its data and services.

Here's the full statement from TikTok:

We disagree with the decision from the Commerce Department, and are disappointed that it stands to block new app downloads from Sunday and ban use of the TikTok app in the US from November 12. Our community of 100 million U.S. users love TikTok because it's a home for entertainment, self-expression, and connection, and we're committed to protecting their privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform.

In our proposal to the U.S. Administration, we've already committed to unprecedented levels of additional transparency and accountability well beyond what other apps are willing to do, including third-party audits, verification of code security, and U.S. government oversight of U.S. data security. Further, an American technology provider would be responsible for maintaining and operating the TikTok network in the U.S., which would include all services and data serving US consumers. We will continue to challenge the unjust executive order, which was enacted without due process and threatens to deprive the American people and small businesses across the US of a significant platform for both a voice and livelihoods.

A Tencent spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that it would continue its discussions with the U.S. government to find a way to keep WeChat functioning in the U.S.

Here's the full statement from Tencent:

We are reviewing the latest announcement from the Department of Commerce restricting the use of WeChat by U.S. users.

WeChat was designed to serve international users outside of mainland China and has always incorporated the highest standards of user privacy and data security.

Following the initial executive order on August 6, we have engaged in extensive discussions with the U.S. government, and have put forward a comprehensive proposal to address its concerns.

The restrictions announced today are unfortunate, but given our desire to provide ongoing services to our users in the U.S. for whom WeChat is an important communication tool we will continue to discuss with the government and other stakeholders in the U.S. ways to achieve a long-term solution.

Representatives for Apple and Google did not respond to requests for comment.

TikTok's interim boss Vanessa Pappas, in a reply to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, called on Facebook to join its lawsuit against the U.S., which claims the company wasn't allowed due process ahead of a ban. Mosseri told CNBC last week that a TikTok ban would be bad for Instagram and Facebook, since it would lead to a country-by-country regulation of the internet.

Meanwhile, no final decision has been made on the Oracle-TikTok deal, and all parties are still hashing out how the technology and ownership structures of the deal will look, CNBC's Eamon Javers reported Friday, citing a senior administration official. So there's still a chance for TikTok to survive Trump's executive order, but WeChat is considered dead in the U.S., according to the official. TheCommittee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has not formally met on the TikTok-Oracle deal either.

Since Trump's Aug. 6 order, there has been a mad dash to complete a deal to sell TikTok's businesses in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to a U.S. company before the Sept. 20 deadline. Microsoft was widely believed to be the top contender and eventually partnered with Walmart on its bid. Oracle was also a top bidder and Google along with SoftBank considered a bid along with Walmart, CNBC previously reported.

But just days before TikTok intended to announce it had selected a buyer, China updated its technology export rules to include artificial intelligence algorithms like TikTok uses. That meant that ByteDance would need a license from China before it could sell TikTok to a U.S. company.

Since then, deal negotiations evolved from a full sale of TikTok's U.S. business to selling a minority stake in the company to a U.S. firm that would host the app's data. Microsoft announced Sunday night that it was backing out of a potential deal, and Oracle confirmed on Monday that its offer would make it a "trusted technology partner" for TikTok.

According to people familiar with the situation, Walmart has joined Oracle's bid. Oracle would get less than a 20% stake in the company based on its current bid. TikTok has indicated that it would also go public on U.S. markets in about a year, although that's not part of the formal deal, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In addition to the U.S. moves, China must review any deal for TikTok. China has not signaled either way if it would approve the deal, Javers reported, citing the senior administration official.

--CNBC's Alex Sherman and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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Trump to block downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday - CNBC