Advertising
These bills could make it easier to tell when influencers and AI are shilling for politicians
Fast Company
“When it comes to AI in political ads, the issue has so far been decided at the state level, with 31 states passing laws about deepfakes and AI disclosures as of June, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.”
Election Briefing: Time is Money and Attention is Scarce. Why Media Buyers Say Chasing Every Screen Won’t Win in 2026
Campaigns & Elections
“There have been some instances and some tests that we’ve run where it’s just better to get the reach and you just don’t want to target yourself into a corner.”
Senate Democrat’s new bills would restrict AI-powered ads and paid influencers
Semafor
“Ads are cropping up around the country using completely AI-generated scenes. And everyday influencers have found a growing niche that has the ability to reach more voters than any billboard or even a broadcast T.V. ad.”
Are Podcast Ads Worth It? Two Political Media Buyers Weigh in
Campaigns & Elections
“According to Pew Research Center data, more than half of Americans – 54 percent – say that they’ve listened to a podcast in the past 12-month period. And younger Americans are even more likely to tune in, with 67 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds saying they’ve listened to a podcast in the past year.”
Campaigns
Secret paid influencer campaign backing Stevens floods Michigan Senate race
MS NOW
“She told MS NOW she found the campaign on Sideshift, an app that offers user-generated content gigs, and earned about $400 for 30 posts.”
Data
Prediction markets get their own media company
Axios
“Just as FiveThirtyEight turned polling into a new way to understand politics, Eventual believes prediction market data can be used to analyze everything from elections to the economy.”
Likely Voters Express Broad Concern About Online Election Prediction Markets
PR Newswire
“Confusion extends to what prediction market odds actually represent. Nearly four in ten likely midterm voters believe that prediction market odds reflect either the number of votes currently counted, or official projections issued by state and local election officials.”
The nation’s harshest data privacy law collides with a political problem
POLITICO
“The law’s provisions create significant costs and risks for campaigns and companies to collect and share voter data, with annual registration fees ranging from $5,000 to $1.5 million, depending on how much data is acquired. States with similar registries such as Texas and California charge $300 and $6,000, respectively.”
Disinformation
The Next Information War Is Already Here
Will Robinson
“First, they need to stop treating websites as brochures. Websites now have to be knowledge bases. They need clear explainers, FAQs, issue pages, myth-vs-fact pages, transcripts, structured data, schema markup, author bios, source citations, and regularly updated HTML content that AI systems can crawl and understand.”
Security
The DNC Lost Nearly $29,000 to an Email Scammer Posing as Ken Martin
NOTUS
“The DNC official said the committee caught the error within minutes and reported it to its financial institution — Wells Fargo, according to federal records — but could only recover $7,000 of the lost money.”
Scammers Swindled Mike Rogers’ Senate Team Out of $16,700
NOTUS
“Alyssa Brouillet, a spokesperson for the Rogers campaign, told NOTUS the political committee had unknowingly paid a fraudulent invoice on April 21 after a vendor’s email had been hacked.”
Social Media
Lawmaker asks SEC to investigate Truth Social’s plan to monetize access to its data
Axios
“Even a brief informational edge can generate substantial profits in algorithmic markets and erode confidence in a fair and level playing field.”
Technology
New research reveals AI answers only as trusted as the newsbrands they cite
Press Gazette
“While most respondents in our study were aware of this fact, 37% did not realise that AI tools can sometimes fabricate information or sources, peaking at around 45% of 45-54-year-olds.”
Strengthening and protecting elections
ElevenLabs
“In the face of these communication barriers, voice AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for democracy. It can read information aloud for the visually impaired, answer questions in a citizen’s preferred language or dialect, and turn dense official documents into a spoken conversation.”