this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
376 points (98.0% liked)

politics

19240 readers
2285 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The call, an apparent imitation or digital manipulation of the president's voice, says, "Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again."

A prominent New Hampshire Democrat plans to file a complaint with the state attorney general over an apparent robocall that appears to encourage supporters of President Joe Biden not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

The voice in the message is familiar — even presidential — as it’s an apparent imitation or digital manipulation of Biden’s voice.

“What a bunch of malarkey,” the voice message begins, echoing a favorite term Biden has uttered before.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 161 points 11 months ago (32 children)

I feel like these types of things will be especially bad this year. They won't be able to catch those responsible fast enough to prevent impact on the primaries, but they should be looking to tie these to the Republicans, and disqualify them from the actual election. We know it's them. It's always them.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 82 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This kind of thing should be treated as sedition because it's a direct attempt to undermine democratic processes. People should be scared shitless to even think about fucking with an election.

Or if it's a foreign country it should be considered an act of war just as much as an airstrike.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I don't know about sedition, but there are already a ton of more specific laws regarding election interference. Things like deliberately telling voters the wrong date, location, or eligibility are usually covered.

The only thing new here is the highly convincing impersonation, which may (or may not) be covered by other laws.

Of note, this will almost entirely be state laws rather than federal. With a few restrictions, each state runs its own elections by its own rules. Which means the (criminal) charge in New Hampshire is different from the one in South Carolina, the one in Texas, etc. Rarely do the feds get involved.

[–] ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

That type of impersonation could be argued as civil fraud. Whoever did this deserves to catch RICO charges because what they're doing is basically racketeering.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

imo its all that plus counts of impersonating a public official /identity theft

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 34 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 77 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, that's what he said. The GOP.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Essentially the same thing.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 30 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Why is it so hard for phone companies to stop this? They explicitly allow unverified numbers to just call whoever on their networks. Is there really no way to stop number spoofing?

[–] highenergyphysics@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The same reason 5-6 model years of Hyundais are worth $0 now

It would be a minuscule cost to the company and they’re not legally required to implement it

Except due to the FCCs complete regulatory capture, the telecoms have now completely ruined voice calls as a form of communication to the extent that nobody even picks up calls on their personal lines anymore.

Remember when you could answer the phone and reasonably expect it would be relevant to your life?

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Indeed. I screen every call now and check the voicemails.

The same reason 5-6 model years of Hyundais are worth $0 now

What is this referencing?

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Hyundai and Kia cut costs by excluding industry standard engine immobilizers in their vehicles.

Most cars have a chip in the key, which is read by the car when you insert it into the keyhole, to verify the key is legit. Even if you cut a new copy of the key, the engine won’t start without that chip. That’s an engine immobilizer. It also prevents people from just brute-forcing the keyway into turning, with something like a screwdriver. Because again, no chip means the car won’t start.

Hyundai and Kia decided to forego these, as a cost cutting measure. And now those Hyundais and Kia’s are virtually worthless (and nearly impossible to insure,) because car thieves know how easy they are to steal. In the past few years, as the methods have gotten posted on places like YouTube and TikTok, anyone with a screwdriver can go steal a Hyundai or Kia. And theft rates have skyrocketed, to the point that some insurance companies are outright refusing to issue policies for them because they know it’ll eventually be stolen.

As for why it was referenced here, my guess is that they were making a parallel about how the technology to prevent spoofed phone numbers already exists. But the companies have decided not to implement them, as a cost-cutting (and anti-competition) measure.

Currently, some phone carriers already offer caller verification. But that only works for internal numbers. For instance, an AT&T caller dialing another AT&T phone. But the companies have refused to cooperate, and allow competitors to access their internal verification systems. So for instance, if an AT&T customer calls a T-Mobile customer, both AT&T and T-Mobile can verify internal calls. But neither company wants to play nice with the other, so they refuse to verify each others’ numbers. So when a spammer spoofs a number, any kind of verification would only be effective if the spammer has the same carrier as the target.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Wooow. Holy shit. Those car makers really fucked up. Those class action suits should have mandates to replace the cars or install immobilizers.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I think that they did. My brother in law had an affected model, and I know he brought it in to get one installed. Not sure if he went out of pocket, but pretty sure it was covered.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

I'm dubious that's all it is; for example, My '03 S10 has a purely mechanical key. In fact, if you have a GM vehicle with that little "chip" in the root of the blade...note that it's in a symmetrical key, so it could go in either way, and it's only got two pins. Because it's just a resistor. The car's security system is pretty much just an ohmmeter.

[–] atp2112@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

The fact that Hyundai and Kia chose not to include an industry standard anti-theft system, leading to them being piss easy to steal

[–] platypus_plumba@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I have my phone set to block all unknown number calls. I was getting around 40 calls per day.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Oh, it’s not gonna be just robocall stuff. It’s gonna be a full-on inundation of deepfake videos, and they’re going to be pushing from one side way harder than the other.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Also, it allows you to say whatever you want and then claim it was a deep fake if someone calls you out. E.g. Roger Stone calling for the murder of Eric Stalwell and Jerry Nadler.

load more comments (28 replies)
[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It starts... This will be the year to decide if we can have functioning information systems and safe, democratic elections in the emerging age of easy AI manipulation.

It's a bad sign that there are no widely, commercially available free tools (from governments or otherwise) to help us confirm the validity of these things. We likely need something as ubiquitous as "googling" to stand against the incoming avalanche of truly fake information.

There will be elections across the globe this year to truly test humanity. I'm hopeful, but I fear we aren't close to ready. Think about what you would do if you suspected a political manipulation was AI generated today? That's one aspect, and you're on Lemmy so you're likely a bit more capable with technology generally (and you probably still don't know what to do). Now, think about your grandmother in Milwaukee... what will she do?

[–] trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 13 points 11 months ago

Yea, that's not happening.

Most of the incompetent morons in both the judicial sector and the lawmaking sector don't understand how a phone works or router functions let alone a grasp of the current eras technology and how it can be abused.

Serious public education with critical thinking at its core was the only way to combat this and it's way too late for that.

Sit back and enjoy the show, there's no going back now and we're all going to burn for the incredible amount of idiocy that has been allowed to fester.

[–] DontMakeMoreBabies@kbin.social 23 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Someone should do this for Trump - his dumbass supporters would probably fall for it.

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 39 points 11 months ago (7 children)

There’s nothing you could make a fake Trump say that could be worse than what he has already said. Conservatives like the fact that he’s a piece of shit. It gives them permission to be pieces of shit, too.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't have to be worse; it just has to reach a different conclusion. In this example, you don't need to convince a Trump voter to abandon him, just not vote for him.

To be clear, I don't support such a move. I'm just discussing the effectiveness of a strategy.

[–] ThePantser@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Have Trump say he has decided to support abortion and gay marriage. There will be enough outrage from the simpletons that it might sway a few.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 9 points 11 months ago

In my experience, they are more likely to convince themselves that they've always supported those, and it's the "demonrats" that opposed it.

Or else they'll dismiss it as saying what people want to hear, and that when he said the opposite is when he was being honest.

Trump supporters rarely care about actual policy.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (4 children)

These traitors should be prosecuted just like Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman did when they did the same type of traitorous bullshit.

[–] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

But with actual jail this time, right?

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

One would dream but highly doubtful. Still having that conviction on their record is good to mark them as traitors.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 6 points 11 months ago

According to Wikipedia they didn't even get jail time. Weak sauce.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

It's unlikely that it's a United States citizen making these robocalls. Anyone stupid enough to break multiple federal and state laws doing this would be indoctrinated enough to think Trump would win without their help.

My money is on foreign interference.

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Meanwhile James O'Keefe is still walking free

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 18 points 11 months ago

See when I asked my lawyer friend if we could do something like this to suppress Republican votes she said it would be multiple kinds of illegal! I guess I didn't ask enough about "would I be caught and punished?"

[–] ynthrepic@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ironic how the reverse will never happen. Only the right-wing benefit from less people voting. It's such a shit asymmetry.

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Ironically, past examples actually give Republicans an edge when more people vote. When people who don't normally follow or discuss politics vote, they're more likely to vote GOP than an educated person.

But yes, a Democrat is less likely to break federal laws in general, such as a stunt like this.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 8 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


MANCHESTER, N.H. — A prominent New Hampshire Democrat plans to file a complaint with the state attorney general over an apparent robocall that appears to encourage supporters of President Joe Biden not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

Biden’s name does not appear on Tuesday’s ballot, a consequence of state elections officials setting the date of the primary ahead of South Carolina’s on Feb. 3, the first sanctioned contest of the 2024 nominating race under new Democratic National Committee rules.

“I want them to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible because this is an attack on democracy,” said Sullivan, an attorney, who believes the call could violate several laws.

She said she also plans to engage federal law enforcement in addition to the state attorney general’s office.

Sullivan served as party chair in 2002, when a so-called phone-jamming effort was carried out during a hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

The Biden campaign, which says it is not involved in the write-in effort in New Hampshire, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


The original article contains 621 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

Nice and legal!

[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

This is some nasty work. I didn't factor in AI being used like this.

load more comments
view more: next ›