32 Colin Moynihan, “Online Troll Named Microchip Tells of Sowing ‘Chaos’ in 2016 Election,” New York Times, March 23, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/nyregion/douglass-mackey-microchip-hillary-clinton-election.html.
33 Scott Shane and Alan Blinder, “Democrats Faked Online Push to Outlaw Alcohol in Alabama Race,” New York Times, January 7, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/politics/alabama-senate-facebook-roy-moore.html.
34 Reporting about the effort also alleged that the company, New Knowledge, had created a ruse involving a network of Russian Twitter accounts that began to follow candidate Roy Moore, generating mainstream media coverage that Russian bots supported him. The CEO disputed the claim. I did not work at the company at the time and learned of these allegations through media coverage. Scott Shane and Alan Blinder, “Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics,” New York Times, June 20, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html.
35 Tony Romm and Craig Timberg, “Facebook Suspends Five Accounts, Including That of a Social Media Researcher, for Misleading Tactics in Alabama Election,” Washington Post, December 22, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/22/facebook-suspends-five-accounts-including-social-media-researcher-misleading-tactics-alabama-election.
36 Matt Osborne, “Swinging a US Senate Race in Alabama, Kremlin-Style Isn’t Illegal, but It Should Be,” Crooks and Liars, January 7, 2019, https://crooksandliars.com/2019/01/how-swing-us-senate-race-alabama-kremlin.
37 Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Facebook Bans Marketing Firm Running ‘Troll Farm’ for Pro-Trump Youth Group,” Washington Post, October 8, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/08/facebook-bans-media-consultancy-running-troll-farm-pro-trump-youth-group.
38 “Analysis of an October 2020 Facebook Takedown Linked to U.S.,” Stanford Internet Observatory Cyber Policy Center, October 8, 2020, https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/oct-2020-fb-rally-forge.
39 Priyanjana Bengani, “Hundreds of ‘Pink Slime’ Local News Outlets Are Distributing Algorithmic Stories and Conservative Talking Points,” Columbia Journalism Review, December 18, 2019, https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/hundreds-of-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-are-distributing-algorithmic-stories-conservative-talking-points.php.
40 Davey Alba and Jack Nicas, “As Local News Dies, a Pay-for-Play Network Rises in Its Place,” New York Times, October 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/technology/timpone-local-news-metric-media.html.
41 Sean Hannity (@seanhannity), “Suspicious! Milwaukee Voting…,” Twitter, November 5, 2020, https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1324355153185656832.
42 Ethan Duran, “Conservative Backed Website Spread Misleading Claims During Election,” Urban Milwaukee, November 12, 2020, https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/11/12/conservative-backed-website-spread-misleading-claims-during-election.
43 Despite their rhetoric, these sites in fact do moderate.
44 Renée DiResta, “Free Speech Is Not the Same as Free Reach,” Wired, August 30, 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-is-not-the-same-as-free-reach.
45 Jeff Kosseff, “First Amendment Protection for Online Platforms,” Computer Law & Security Review 35, no. 5 (October 1, 2019): 105340, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2019.105340.
