Trump is invoking Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, which authorizes him to seize control of the entire DC police department for a maximum of 30 days.

This is insane stuff. D.C. is not in the grip of a crime wave. Crime has been falling for three years now. Violent crime is at a 30-year low.

First They Came for Civil Society The greatest threat to both free expression and national security isn’t coming from efforts to combat disinformation — it’s coming from politicians determined to dismantle those efforts.

Next week, congress will hold yet another hearing on the "censorship industrial complex." This piece unpacks the true goals of this campaign: to systematically target and silence the civil society groups that defend our democracy from info/cyber attacks

thereformcompass.substack.com/p/first-they...

CISA is an agency supported/created by bipartisan lawmakers to protect not just elections, but critical physical infrastructure like pipelines and power plants. Sign up to understand the DOGE attacks on CISA and why its work is more important today than ever 👇

Daily reminder from @juddlegum.bsky.social that this isn't about free speech. It's about retribution

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills

We're so far past "at first they came for..."

The assault on truth continues as billions in NSF grants are frozen and critical work is upended. But in the deluge of terrible news this has largely gone under the radar (the system's working effectively, that's why)

www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...

Big Tech Cozies Up to New Administration After Spending Record Sums on Lobbying Last Year - Issue One The influence of Big Tech was visible from every angle during inauguration activities in the nation’s capital early this week. While the tech industry has long favored Democrats, Big Tech…

Speaking of tech oligarchs, @issueonereform.bsky.social's new report shows that Meta, Alphabet, ByteDance, Snap, and X spent a staggering $61.5M on lobbying in 2024 (up 13% from 2023) hiring nearly 300 lobbyists.

That's $240,000 for every day Congress was in session

issueone.org/articles/big...

Said the quiet part out loud

GOP senators criticize Trump over pardoning violent Jan. 6 rioters “That segment of pardons — I'm as disappointed as I am with all the pardons that Biden did,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

Too little too late www.politico.com/live-updates...

The discussion around Trump's inauguration guest list and the 15th anniversary of Citizens United makes this starter pack a timely and informative addition to your feed.

We put together a list of people and organizations working to defend our democracy from dark money: bsky.app/profile/did:...

2024 was the first presidential election held under new rules for counting electoral votes as set by the Electoral Count Reform Act. As seen this week, the law worked and set an important precedent for the peaceful transfer of power in future elections: campaignlegal.org/update/peace...

Over the past 4–5 years, Facebook has sunset tools (chiefly CrowdTangle) used by researchers and journalists, made data difficult and expensive to get, and iced out academics studying disinformation.

Now, it's shutting down the fact checking on its platform.

Excited to share that I've started a new position as Legislative Director for @issueonereform.bsky.social! Looking forward to continuing to work with all of you in this new role, where I'll be leading our advocacy work across election protection, tech accountability, and money in politics reforms.

Analysis | Outraged? You’re more likely to share misinformation, study finds. Research sheds light on viral falsehoods as a separate report finds foreign disinformation plagued social media in the 2024 election.

When you see a post that outrages you:
- You're more likely to share it without stopping to check if it's true
- It's statistically more likely to be false or misleading

Wrote about a new study in Science that finds misinfo thrives in part because social media optimizes for outrage: wapo.st/3D0waHZ

Meta claims AI had a limited impact across their platforms this election.

But a new report from @issueonereform.bsky.social finds significant use of generative AI by foreign actors to spread electoral disinformation on social media. issueone.org/articles/flo...

Flooding the Gap - Issue One Jamie Neikrie and Liana Keesing authored this report. Michael Beckel, Angelina Clapp, Alix Fraser, Abigail Gaetz, Oliver Ni, and Claire Woodall contributed to this report.

@issueonereform.bsky.social is out with a great report on how Russia/China/etc. took advantage of tech companies rolling back trust & safety efforts. Yikes! issueone.org/articles/flo...

Flooding the Gap: How social media companies empowered foreign adversaries during 2024 election cycle - Issue One This month, Issue One published a new report, “Flooding the Gap: How Big Tech’s Failures Empowered Foreign Adversaries and Undermined the 2024 U.S. Election,” highlighting how the design and operation...

This afternoon I’ll be joining @jamiedemocracy.bsky.social @issueonereform.bsky.social @freepress.bsky.social @isdglobal.bsky.social @ellenjacobs.bsky.social to review and make sense of the online manipulation environment of 2024. Join us at 4pm ET! issueone.org/events/flood...

Can't think of a better first bluesky post. Issue One's new report unpacks how Big Tech failures empowered foreign adversaries to spread propaganda, divide voters, and erode trust in democratic institutions. Analysis of @newsguard.bsky.social data; coverage by @willoremus.com in @politico.com