New York Times: The Facebook-Twitter-Trump Wars Are Actually About Something Else. “Much of the outrage around the Trump era and social media platforms — like, most recently, the decision by Facebook and Twitter to reduce the reach of a highly questionable New York Post story about Hunter Biden — is actually about government power and accountability. More specifically, people are angry about the absence of those things.”
Donald Trump
How Trump impacts harmful Twitter speech: A case study in three tweets (Brookings Institution)
Brookings Institution: How Trump impacts harmful Twitter speech: A case study in three tweets. “Here, we examine three recent tweets from the president and whether his tweets have a similarly negative impact on the quality of other online speech. These three tweets offer a case study in how elite speech online can impact the incidence of harmful speech.”
Washington Post: Trump attacks ‘Fauci and all these idiots,’ says public is tired of pandemic, public health restrictions as infection rates rise
Washington Post: Trump attacks ‘Fauci and all these idiots,’ says public is tired of pandemic, public health restrictions as infection rates rise. “President Trump dismissed precautions to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and attacked the nation’s top infectious-disease expert as a ‘disaster’ [October 19], arguing that people are getting tired of all the focus on a pandemic that has killed more than 219,000 Americans and continues to infect thousands of people in communities across the country.”
STAT News: Community outbreaks of Covid-19 often emerge after Trump’s campaign rallies
STAT News: Community outbreaks of Covid-19 often emerge after Trump’s campaign rallies. “As the death toll of Covid-19 heads toward 220,000 in the United States alone, more deaths than in any other country in the world, the president, who is currently convalescing from Covid-19 himself, has spent the past several months crisscrossing a pandemic-ravaged country in his bid for reelection. The crowds he draws are fertile breeding grounds for transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, followed by community outbreaks.”
Motherboard: Skepticism Mounts Around Alleged Trump Twitter Hack
Motherboard: Skepticism Mounts Around Alleged Trump Twitter Hack. “On Thursday, Dutch media outlets reported that security researcher Victor Gevers had accessed President Trump’s Twitter account with the password ‘maga2020!’ But multiple security experts including those who track how Twitter accounts are compromised, as well as a review of the material that Gevers provided to Dutch and other media to corroborate his claim, throw doubt onto the hacking claim.”
Mother Jones: How the Most Toxic, Notorious Pro-Trump Online Community Tricked Reddit and Got Back Online
Mother Jones: How the Most Toxic, Notorious Pro-Trump Online Community Tricked Reddit and Got Back Online. “Even though their subreddit has been banned from Reddit for over four months, The_Donald’s former members continue to wreak havoc on the site. Mother Jones has gained access to two servers hosted by Discord where former members of the banned subreddit gather, including a private server that requires members to be vetted. Chat messages posted there show how former members of The_Donald have found new homes on Reddit and continue to coordinate and plan the spread of hate, vitriol, and disinformation on the site and in other venues, despite the company’s ban.”
Slate: Three of the Most Prestigious Scientific Journals Have Condemned Trump’s Handling of COVID-19
Slate: Three of the Most Prestigious Scientific Journals Have Condemned Trump’s Handling of COVID-19. “Many saw these clear condemnations of the U.S. government’s COVID-19 response as a stark departure from the science journals’ normal purview. The editorials come on the heels of Scientific American’s endorsement of Joe Biden—a first in its 175-year-history—so the idea of scientists taking a stand on politics is currently fresh in the public’s mind. But unlike the popular science magazine, Nature, Science, and NEJM are all known for publishing impactful original academic research, making it seem all the more surprising that they’d wade into political commentary.”
ABC News: Trump dismisses pandemic, rips Fauci as ‘disaster’ in campaign all-staff call
ABC News: Trump dismisses pandemic, rips Fauci as ‘disaster’ in campaign all-staff call. “In a remarkable move with 15 days to go until Election Day, President Donald Trump on an all-staff campaign call Monday morning leveled his most aggressive attacks yet on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert on the president’s own coronavirus task force, calling him a ‘disaster’ while also outright dismissing the pandemic, saying Americans are ‘over COVID’ as deaths near 220,000 in the United States and cases rise around the country.”
CNET: Judge orders DOJ to determine intent of Trump’s tweets ‘declassifying’ Russia docs
CNET: Judge orders DOJ to determine intent of Trump’s tweets ‘declassifying’ Russia docs. “A federal judge wants to know more about what President Donald Trump meant when he tweeted that he’d ‘fully authorized the total declassification’ of documents related to the probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US elections, according to media reports.”
Washington Post: When Trump gets coronavirus, Chinese Americans pay a price
Washington Post: When Trump gets coronavirus, Chinese Americans pay a price. “In an analysis of 2.7 million tweets in the three days after Trump announced his and first lady Melania Trump’s diagnosis on Twitter, the ADL found elevated language associated with hostility against Asians, compared with the previous day. In the 12 hours after Trump’s announcement, ADL saw an 85 percent spike in such language. The announcement sparked thousands of online conversations blaming China for trying to purposefully infect the president, the researchers found.”
Los Angeles Times: Even some supporters are disappointed that COVID-19 bout didn’t humble Trump
Los Angeles Times: Even some supporters are disappointed that COVID-19 bout didn’t humble Trump. “The COVID-19 outbreak at the White House has refocused attention on how Trump has dealt with the pandemic — his biggest political liability. A Washington Post/ABC poll released last weekend found 58% of voters disapprove of how Trump has handled the pandemic. Many of those are Democrats, but in interviews even supporters of the president said he seemed to lack empathy for those who have suffered.”
New York Times: Inspired by Trump, Hasidic Backlash Grows Over Virus Rules
New York Times: Inspired by Trump, Hasidic Backlash Grows Over Virus Rules. “Orthodox Jewish leaders have seen a growing, raucous faction of young men in the community, tired of pandemic guidelines and resentful of the secular authorities.”
NBC News: Trump repeats inaccurate claim about masks, citing CDC study
NBC News: Trump repeats inaccurate claim about masks, citing CDC study. “President Donald Trump is again questioning the effectiveness of masks in protecting against catching the coronavirus. On Thursday, he repeated an incorrect claim about masks, citing a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
New York Times: How Much Would Trump’s Coronavirus Treatment Cost Most Americans?
New York Times: How Much Would Trump’s Coronavirus Treatment Cost Most Americans?. “President Trump spent three days in the hospital. He arrived and left by helicopter. And he received multiple coronavirus tests, oxygen, steroids and an experimental antibody treatment. For someone who isn’t president, that would cost more than $100,000 in the American health system. Patients could face significant surprise bills and medical debt even after health insurance paid its share.”
The Atlantic: What COVID-19 Families Hear When Trump Brags About His Strength
The Atlantic: What COVID-19 Families Hear When Trump Brags About His Strength. “There are thousands of Americans like [Sabila] Khan, for whom the past few months have been nothing less than a nightmare. To many of them, Donald Trump’s downplaying of his own COVID-19 diagnosis, and his rhetoric equating sickness with weakness, has been a profound insult. Before Trump’s hospitalization, most Americans already disapproved of his handling of the pandemic. With each dismissive comment, he minimizes the suffering of an ever-growing share of Americans.”