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The Big Story
Rumble gets boost with first two GOP presidential debates
The online video-sharing platform will be the exclusive livestream provider for the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) first two presidential primary debates this year.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Wednesday that Rumble will be the “exclusive RNC livestream provider and the RNC’s exclusive online home” for the Sept. 27 debate. Fox Business will host the debate.
Rumble’s exclusive livestream status for the first debate, on Aug. 23, was announced earlier this year. That debate will be televised on Fox News.
McDaniel said in the April announcement, “[A]s Republican leaders we must continue to hold Big Tech accountable for their biases and silencing of conservatives. People deserve a fair, unbiased platform and that’s exactly what this partnership will provide – an opportunity for voters to watch the next President of the United States on the Republican debate stage on Rumble.”
A Pew Research Center study conducted in May 2022 found that 20 percent of U.S. adults had heard of Rumble, with 2 percent saying they regularly get news on the platform. Among those who regularly get news on the platform, 76 percent identified as Republican or Republican-leaning.
Rumble Chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski said in April that the platform’s mission is “to protect free speech” and that it “saw record traffic and user engagement during the 2022 midterms.”
Eight candidates have qualified for the first GOP debate: former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Background reading:Learn more about Rumble’s growth and its position within what The Hill’s Rebecca Klar called the “right-wing online ecosystem” here.
Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, I’m Amee LaTour filling in today for Rebecca. We’re tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed and obtained a search warrant related to former President Trump’s account on X, according to court filings unsealed Wednesday. The case, decided in July, ordered X, formerly known as Twitter, to turn over the documents sought by Smith and also fined the company $350,000 for a three-day delay in complying with a court order of the records. The Justice Department (DOJ), which first sought …
Most Americans across party lines say they are concerned about rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, according to a poll released Wednesday. In a survey of 1,001 registered voters in the United States, 62 percent of respondents said they were mostly or somewhat concerned about growth in AI, 21 percent said they were mostly or somewhat excited about it and 16 percent said they were “totally neutral.” Voters …
A nonprofit organization that tracks online hate speech pledged to keep pushing forward with its goal of holding tech companies accountable, even as the group fends off a lawsuit from the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), the U.K.-based watchdog group, found itself in the crosshairs of Musk’s latest offensive move in response to civil society groups that are pushing …
News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:
Slack is getting a makeover
Slack announced a makeover designed to help users more easily find information relevant to them and track direct message threads. “We’ve added a lot more tools and capabilities into the core Slack product that really has evolved from being a collaboration tool to a full-fledged productivity platform,” chief product officer Noah Weiss told TechCrunch.
OpenAI launches new webcrawler with opt-out function
OpenAI launched a webcrawler it sayscould improve AI models in terms of safety and accuracy, along with instructions on how websites can restrict the webcrawler’s access partly or completely, Mashable reported.
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Zoom, which thrived on the remote work revolution, wants workers back in the office part-time
NEW YORK (AP) — The company whose name became synonymous with remote work is joining the growing return-to-office trend. Zoom, the video conferencing pioneer, is asking employees who live within a 50-mile radius of its offices to work onsite two days a week, a company spokesperson confirmed in an …
Moderate Republicans and those in competitive districts have largely lined up behind Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other GOP leaders as they … Read more
A federal appeals court will hear arguments Thursday regarding a lower court’s ruling curtailing communications by officials in the Biden administration … Read more
