One America News and Smartmatic settle defamation lawsuit

Happy Tuesday! Here's your Tuesday tech drop, the week's top stories at the intersection of tech and politics.

Settle down now

Ultraconservative news outlet One America News and voting technology company Smartmatic announced Tuesday that they have reached a settlement in the defamation lawsuit the latter filed after hosts and guests on OAN spread lies about Smartmatic software’s being part of a scheme to throw the 2020 election to Joe Biden. The details of the settlement weren’t released.

Read more at CNN.

Media Matters thwarts Musk’s minion

A federal judge Friday blocked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's attempt to probe Media Matters, a watchdog group that has been critical of Elon Musk’s social media platform, X. After Media Matters wrote about how hate speech had been allowed to spread on X, Musk got angry and sued. That spurred a couple of state attorneys general to announce their own probes into Media Matters, and Paxton was the giddiest. He demanded the media organization turn over documents, which spurred a legal fight that ended with a firm rebuke from federal Judge Amit Mehta.

In his preliminary injunction blocking Paxton from accessing the documents, Mehta noted the “profound chilling impact” the probe had on Media Matters’ journalistic activities.

Read more at Tech Dirt.

Mirando a los mentirosos

Over at Tech Policy Press, Diana Enriquez wrote about the ways social media platforms’ algorithms and poor translation tools are leaving Spanish-speaking people vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation campaigns. It’s insightful … and plenty worrying.

Read more at Tech Policy Press.

AI enters the dis track debate

A dis track credited to Drake takes aim at a host of rappers, but some on social media are speculating that it may have been generated using artificial intelligence. Which leads to the question: Could AI destroy the dis track? Even if you’re not into hip-hop, it’s a story about AI-generated media and questions around authenticity — one that has implications beyond beats and rhymes.

Read Rolling Stone’s report here. 

Fake news fallout

Fox News, Newsmax and a bunch of right-wing social media influencers are being sued by a Texas man who alleges they fueled false claims that linked him to a mass shooting in May that was committed by a neo-Nazi with the same name.

Read more at Mediaite.

The psychology of social media

The American Psychological Association has released a report on the dangers social media platforms can pose to young people. The report found that addictive features like endless scrolling and push notifications are “particularly risky” to young people.

Read more at NBC News.

Parler pops back up

Parler, the far-right-friendly social media platform, is trying to make a comeback. Just in time for election season, perhaps. The platform was removed from Apple’s and Google’s app stores after it was used by participants in the Jan. 6 insurrection; then it was sold off. But news reports last year suggested that Parler was trying to make a return. Although Parler is now back in the app stores under new management, it’s hard to imagine it dominating the social media space with sites like X and Truth Social already attracting right-wingers. But this cutesy, eclipse-inspired Twitter post is an attempt.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com