Russia propagandists are behind a gross lie targeting Tim Walz

Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and the all-inclusive world of technology.

Russia targets Gov. Tim Walz

U.S. intelligence officials say a Russian propaganda network is behind efforts to smear vice presidential nominee Tim Walz with false allegations that he sexually assaulted a former student. The lies have been discredited by fact-checkers, but not before pro-Trump social media accounts promoted them.

Read more at NPR.

NBC explores the disinformation pipeline

Relatedly, NBC News published a cool, interactive article explaining how Russian disinformation spreads online.

Check it out here.

FTC’s fake review ban

The Federal Trade Commission ban on fake reviews of businesses, services and products went into effect on Monday.

Read more at The Associated Press.

Republicans call for DOJ probe into Musk

Several former GOP officials are asking the Department of Justice to probe Elon Musk’s controversial $1 million lottery for voters in swing states for potential illegality. As Trump allies have been ramping up their dubious, pro-Trump electioneering, Musk has promoted lies about Dominion voting machines and financed micro-targeted ads t o Muslim and Jewish voters that invoke the war in Gaza to turn these groups against Harris. Musk’s latest cash giveaway is yet another sign that he sees Trump as a ticket to greater political power.

Read more about the DOJ probe in The Washington Post.

Cheney and Johnson’s text exchange

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney had a tense text exchange with House Speaker Mike Johnson last week, Axios reports, after Cheney told NBC she’s not confident Johnson will fulfill his constitutional duties to certify the presidential election if Trump loses (MSNBC has not verified the texts). “MAGA Mike” was reportedly not happy with his former colleague.

Read more in Axios.

Right-wing funding for Jan. 6 exposed

USA Today pointed to revelations in the recently released court documents from the federal election interference case against Trump that show an unnamed group budgeted $1 million to have Turning Point Action send social media influencers to Trump’s pre-insurrection rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and to create content out of it.

Read more at USA Today.

New X rules

Elon Musk-owned social media platform X has changed its terms of service to require that all users give the platform permission to use their posts to train X’s artificial intelligence models. Many users are unhappy. Given this is Musk and this data could be used in any number of horrifying ways, it’s hard to blame them.

Read more at CNN.