FEC Passes On Deepfake Rules

Advertising

FEC deadlocks on whether to govern deepfake campaign ads
Roll Call
“‘With my full support the commission has asked Congress to expand our authority, and I understand draft legislation has been introduced, but right now the only fraud we’re entitled to police is where an agent of one candidate pretends to be the agent of another or where a person raises funds by fraudulently claiming to be acting on behalf of the campaign with which he or she is unaffiliated,’ Dickerson said during Thursday’s meeting.”

Campaigns

The quadrennial quest for $1 dollar donations
FWIW
“Most of the Republican candidates also have something that Democrats in 2019 didn’t: single-candidate super PACs. Super PACs and other outside entities affiliated with Francis Suarez, Asa Hutchinson, and Chris Christie are accepting unlimited contributions from major donors and then funneling that money into digital ads soliciting small-dollar donations directly to their favored candidates’ bank accounts. In other words, we’re in a very weird era for campaign finance rules.”

Pro-RFK Jr. Super PAC Has Deep Ties to Marjorie Taylor Greene, George Santos
Rolling Stone
“Reached by phone, Thompson declined to comment on the Kennedy Super PAC. ‘We have a strict policy at our firm that we don’t discuss our clients,’ he tells Rolling Stone. And the Heal the Divide site does not advertise its Republican backing. But a mistake on the group’s website gives away its origins: The site’s terms of service appear to have been copied and pasted from MAGA PAC, a Trump Super PAC, and incorrectly refers to the Heal the Divide site as MAGApac.com.”

Fundraising

Opinion | One of the Most Effective Political Fundraising Pitches Is Actually a Scam
Politico
“When did it become acceptable for political leaders to deceive their supporters for contributions? I have been in and around campaigns (mine and others) for decades, and I can assure you that it’s not normal. There’s always been puffery, like ‘I’m the best candidate,’ or ‘The stakes couldn’t be higher.’ But this is different. This is a claim built on a lie — on fraud — and in less than a decade has become the norm in political campaign fundraising.”

Politicians Are Trying a New Fundraising Approach: Honesty
Bloomberg
“The heavy use of email fundraising, which helped campaigns such as former President Donald Trump’s reach grassroots supporters, has become a less effective approach for raising money as weary donors ignore repeated email blasts warning of dire consequences if they don’t give.”

Technology

The 2024 presidential race is the AI election
Axios
Top technologists are portraying a dystopian landscape in 2024 in which misinformation and disinformation proliferate with a speed and ease that means ‘you can't trust anything that you see or hear,’ as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt puts it.”

• 6 Ways Anyone Can Use Artificial Intelligence For Their Political Campaign (Best Practice Digital)

Scoop: Congress sets limits on staff ChatGPT use
Axios
“Offices are allowed to use the tool for ‘research and evaluation only’ and can experiment on how it can improve their operations, but are ‘not authorized to incorporate it into regular workflow.’