LTO Links #297

Abortion Politics Invigorate Democrats' Base

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Issue #297 |  

Advertising

Conservatives eager to see return of political ads on Twitter under Musk

"Conservatives, however, were almost unanimously opposed to the political ad ban. They expect that if paid political messages are allowed back, it could generate hundreds of millions in revenue for Twitter while also putting pressure on rivals Facebook and Google to up their game in this space."

Campaigns

A mole hunt, a secret website and Peter Thiel's big risk: How J.D. Vance won his primary

"The site — housed on the publishing platform Medium under the username @protectohiovaluesforms — allowed the super PAC to publicly convey information to the Vance campaign without breaking federal laws prohibiting coordination between big-spending outside groups and campaigns. By accessing the website, the lesser-funded Vance campaign was able to capitalize on the resources of the Thiel-funded super PAC."

Content

FEC tosses case against progressive news network

"The complaint, filed in 2020 by the conservative group Americans for Public Trust, alleged Courier existed to promote Democratic candidates in key political contests and, therefore, had to register as a political committee.

"Courier maintained it is a bona fide news operation — albeit with a progressive perspective — and pointed to a stable of news reporters it has hired to fill out its various state-focused newsrooms."

Data

Automated Content Recognition: TV Watches Back – Adam Meldrum (AdVictory)

"Did you know that your TV is watching back – and reporting what it sees? Most TVs have Automated Content Recognition (ACR) software that catalogs and aggregates what is on the screen at a given moment."

Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics

"SafeGraph ultimately obtains location data from ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones. Often app developers install code, called software development kits (SDKs), into their apps that sends users’ location data to companies in exchange for the developer receiving payment."

Design

How the “Choose Life” speciality license plate conquered the U.S.

"There are 34 states that allow speciality “Choose Life” license plates, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and 19 allow a portion of the proceeds from the plate to go to groups opposed to abortion."

Email

Ending abusive practices in campaign email programs

"There are lots of PACs out there, and even some of the big Democratic institutional players, who have not chosen to clean up their act and have decided that they are okay with scamming folks to make as much money as possible before the next FEC deadline. They’ll keep doing it as long as they can get away with it."

Fundraising

Democrats raise more than $7 million in hours after leak of draft Supreme Court abortion opinion

"The donation website ActBlue, which allows donors to contribute online to Democratic campaigns, political action committees and outside groups that often support the the party’s policy goals, processed the gargantuan sum since Politico published the draft opinion Monday. CNBC calculated the amount by watching the site’s live ticker since Tuesday morning and combining it with data made public through Twitter posts by Andrew Arenge, a director of operations at the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies."