Read Vice President Kamala Harris’ Full Concession Speech; Time, November 6, 2024

TIME STAFF, Time; Read Vice President Kamala Harris’ Full Concession Speech

[Excerpt]

 "You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world. And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together. Look, many of you know I started out as a prosecutor and throughout my career I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives.  People who had suffered great harm and great pain, and yet found within themselves the strength and the courage and the resolve to take the stand, to take a stand, to fight for justice, to fight for themselves, to fight for others. So let their courage be our inspiration. Let their determination be our charge. And I'll close with this. There's an adage a historian once called a law of history, true of every society across the ages. The adage is, only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here's the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.

The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.

And may that work guide us even in the face of setbacks toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America. I thank you all. Make God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America. I thank you all."

Watch Harris' full concession speech following Trump win; MSNBC, November 6, 2024

MSNBC ; Watch Harris' full concession speech following Trump win

"Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation after her loss to former President Donald Trump, formally ending her campaign. She pledged her loyalty to the Constitution and delivered a message to the young people in the audience."

America Makes a Perilous Choice; The New York Times, November 6, 2024

THE EDITORIAL BOARD, The New York Times; America Makes a Perilous Choice

"Benjamin Franklin famously admonished the American people that the nation was “a republic, if you can keep it.” Mr. Trump’s election poses a grave threat to that republic, but he will not determine the long-term fate of American democracy. That outcome remains in the hands of the American people. It is the work of the next four years."

It’s Time to Admit America Has Changed; The New York Times, November 6, 2024

Patrick Healy and David French, The New York Times; It’s Time to Admit America Has Changed

"Donald Trump’s enduring hold over the Republican Party will send him back to the White House. On this episode of “The Opinions,” the columnist David French joins the deputy Opinion editor Patrick Healy to discuss the future of the G.O.P. and what a second Trump term might mean for America...

Patrick Healy: I’m Patrick Healy, deputy editor of Opinion, and I’ve covered American politics for decades as a reporter, editor and running our New York Times focus groups.

David French: I’m David French, a columnist for Opinion...

Healy: David, America has never been here before. It looks like a felon is about to take the presidency. Someone who incited an insurrection at the Capitol, who tried to overturn the 2020 election. Whose view and belief in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power and the Constitution is just a really open question. I know it’s left a lot of Americans with a lot of frankly terrified feelings and they don’t know what the next four years are going to be like or how they’re going to get through it. And I find myself wondering when you look ahead, what’s weighing on your mind as we head into Wednesday and in the next few days?

French: You know, I was speaking at a college a few days ago and someone asked, “What will be your mindset if Donald Trump wins?” And I think of it as having two real components: Protect the vulnerable and speak the truth.

When you think about Trump’s declaration of vengeance, he wants to pursue his political enemies. He wants to pursue deportations at a scale that would be terrifying. So you can already see that there are vulnerable populations that will need protection. That includes political dissidents, political opponents that might be vulnerable to a vengeful Department of Justice. That includes immigrants and others who — you know, think about it this way, you’re talking about people who have said, “Hey, look, if there’s a person who is an illegal immigrant, but they have children who are citizens, well, so what? So what? Just sweep them out.” Right?

So there’s going to be this real need to protect vulnerable populations, protect vulnerable people. And then the other thing is, if there’s one thing that we’ve learned, it is very, very difficult to combat large-scale lying and defamation from people who have an immense amount of power and privilege. That is just very difficult because people who come into politics sort of more casually don’t know much about it — they don’t know if someone says yes and another person says no, if one person says up and another person says down — they don’t know how to adjudicate these disputes. And so I think about it in these two ways: protect the vulnerable, speak the truth, and I think of it in this moment as this is a real clarion call moment. At some point we’re going to have to sort of continue to put aside many of the differences that have divided sort of the different elements of the anti-Trump coalition.

I think it’s totally fine to grieve this. It’s totally fine to lament that this has occurred and to grieve that this is where we are as a country. But that’s got to be short, because if we care about justice in this country, there’s going to be a lot of work to do. I don’t think anyone should feel like the American experiment is over, but we should understand and gain knowledge from history that America can regress.

You know, Martin Luther King Jr. said the arc of history is long, but “it bends toward justice.” I remain relatively optimistic in that direction. But we’ve had long periods of backsliding, and we might be walking into one of those periods right now. And I just think when I look back at American history, you know, who stands out in those periods as having resisted the drift of the times, as having said no when so many other people were saying yes to injustice and hatred, and so that’s why I really think of it in these two frames. Defend the vulnerable, speak the truth."

Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says; Reuters, November 5, 2024

Tim Reid and Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters; Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says

"Hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in four battleground states - Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin - as Election Day voting was underway, the FBI said.

"None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said in a statement, adding that election integrity was among the bureau's highest priorities...

The two locations, in Fulton County, both re-opened after about 30 minutes, officials said, and the county was seeking a court order to extend the locations' voting hours past the statewide 7 p.m. deadline.

Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, blamed Russian interference for the Election Day bomb hoaxes."

Rapid spread of election disinformation stokes alarm; The Hill, November 5, 2024

MIRANDA NAZZARO , The Hill; Rapid spread of election disinformation stokes alarm

"The long-lasting falsehoods over the 2020 election have made voters and election watchers more attuned to the potential for disinformation, though experts said recent technology advances are making it more difficult for users to discern fake content.

“We are seeing new formats, new modalities of manipulation of some sort including … this use of generative AI [artificial intelligence], the use of these mock news websites to preach more fringe stories and, most importantly perhaps, the fact that now these campaigns span the entire media ecosystem online,” said Emilio Ferrara, professor of computer science and communication at the University of Southern California

“And they are not just limited to perhaps one mainstream platform like we [saw] in 2020 or even in 2016,” said Ferrara, who co-authored a study that discovered a multiplatform network amplifying “conservative narratives” and former President Trump’s 2024 campaign.

False content has emerged online throughout this election cycle, often in the form of AI-generated deepfakes. The images have sparked a flurry of warnings from lawmakers and strategists about attempts to influence the race’s outcome or sow chaos and distrust in the electoral process."

The Heart of the Matter: Copyright, AI Training, and LLMs; SSRN, November 1, 2024

 Daniel J. Gervais, Vanderbilt University - Law School

Noam Shemtov, Queen Mary University of London, Centre for Commercial Law Studies

Haralambos Marmanis, Copyright Clearance Center

Catherine Zaller Rowland, Copyright Clearance Center 

SSRN; The Heart of the Matter: Copyright, AI Training, and LLMs

"Abstract

This article explores the intricate intersection of copyright law and large language models (LLMs), a cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology that has rapidly gained prominence. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the copyright implications arising from the training, fine-tuning, and use of LLMs, which often involve the ingestion of vast amounts of copyrighted material. The paper begins by elucidating the technical aspects of LLMs, including tokenization, word embeddings, and the various stages of LLM development. This technical foundation is crucial for understanding the subsequent legal analysis. The authors then delve into the copyright law aspects, examining potential infringement issues related to both inputs and outputs of LLMs. A comparative legal analysis is presented, focusing on the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Switzerland. The article scrutinizes relevant copyright exceptions and limitations in these jurisdictions, including fair use in the US and text and data mining exceptions in the EU. The authors highlight the uncertainties and challenges in applying these legal concepts to LLMs, particularly in light of recent court decisions and legislative developments. The paper also addresses the potential impact of the EU's AI Act on copyright considerations, including its extraterritorial effects. Furthermore, it explores the concept of "making available" in the context of LLMs and its implications for copyright infringement. Recognizing the legal uncertainties and the need for a balanced approach that fosters both innovation and copyright protection, the authors propose licensing as a key solution. They advocate for a combination of direct and collective licensing models to provide a practical framework for the responsible use of copyrighted materials in AI systems.

This article offers valuable insights for legal scholars, policymakers, and industry professionals grappling with the copyright challenges posed by LLMs. It contributes to the ongoing dialogue on adapting copyright law to technological advancements while maintaining its fundamental purpose of incentivizing creativity and innovation."

A Librarian From Louisiana Fights Book Bans and ‘the Haters’; The New York Times, November 4, 2024

 James Barron , The New York Times; A Librarian From Louisiana Fights Book Bans and ‘the Haters’

"Amanda Jones of Watson, La., is sure to get a shout-out at the New York Public Library’s $5,000-a-person gala tonight. The library, which invited her to attend, is giving her a free ticket.

Amid a surge in book bans nationwide, Jones moved into the spotlight in 2022 with a brief speech during a meeting at her hometown public library — not the library she oversees at a local middle school. She said books with L.G.B.T.Q. themes should not be taken off the shelves. Almost immediately, she began receiving expletive-laden messages accusing her of being a pedophile.

Jones stood her ground, writing a memoir, “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America.” She also started a group called Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship to lobby against restrictions on libraries.

“The backlash she faced is a testament to the urgent need to protect intellectual freedom,” said Anthony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library."

Penguin Random House books now explicitly say ‘no’ to AI training; The Verge, October 18, 2024

Emma Roth , The Verge; Penguin Random House books now explicitly say ‘no’ to AI training

"Book publisher Penguin Random House is putting its stance on AI training in print. The standard copyright page on both new and reprinted books will now say, “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems,” according to a report from The Bookseller spotted by Gizmodo. 

The clause also notes that Penguin Random House “expressly reserves this work from the text and data mining exception” in line with the European Union’s laws. The Bookseller says that Penguin Random House appears to be the first major publisher to account for AI on its copyright page. 

What gets printed on that page might be a warning shot, but it also has little to do with actual copyright law. The amended page is sort of like Penguin Random House’s version of a robots.txt file, which websites will sometimes use to ask AI companies and others not to scrape their content. But robots.txt isn’t a legal mechanism; it’s a voluntarily-adopted norm across the web. Copyright protections exist regardless of whether the copyright page is slipped into the front of the book, and fair use and other defenses (if applicable!) also exist even if the rights holder says they do not."

A torrent of Election Day disinformation is coming. Here’s how to avoid falling for it.; Politico, November 5, 2024

 JOHN SAKELLARIADIS, Politico; A torrent of Election Day disinformation is coming. Here’s how to avoid falling for it.

"Haitian immigrants did not vote multiple times for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, and poll workers in Pennsylvania did not destroy ballots for Trump, though a pair of videos that went viral in the last 10 days would have you think otherwise.

Both were fabrications of Kremlin influence actors, the U.S. intelligence community has said, and late Monday, it released a new statement calling out “additional influence operations” from Russia...

America’s adversaries “likely learned lessons” from the political turmoil that engulfed the U.S. after Election Day in 2020, senior U.S. intelligence officials told reporters last month. That means Russia, China and Iran are likely to amp up their efforts to spread lies and even incite violence between Election Day and inauguration.

One key defense is to refer any pressing questions to your local officials. “The bottom line when it comes to mis- and disinformation is that voters need to go to the source, and the source is your local and your state election officials,” said Marci Andino, the senior director of the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center."

‘Chaos and confusion’: Microsoft braces for foreign election interference in days ahead; Politico, November 4, 2024

STEVEN OVERLY, Politico;  ‘Chaos and confusion’: Microsoft braces for foreign election interference in days ahead

"“I do think people should expect that the noise levels — the sort of chaos and confusion — will continue through Election Day and then most certainly in the days after,” Ginny Badanes, the general manager of Microsoft’s Democracy Forward program, told the POLITICO Tech podcast.

In recent months, Russian disinformation campaigns designed to disparage Vice President Kamala Harris have experimented with artificial intelligence to create or enhance fake content. And Iranian hackers have successfully infiltrated former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Microsoft’s election defense efforts focus on these foreign adversaries because they “have the funding to be persistent over time” and are willing to “pick up on whatever narratives are working, regardless of the source,” Badanes said.

But many of the rumors and conspiracy theories that emerge in the days ahead are expected to originate from American political groups. Trump and his allies have preemptively churned up claims about voter fraud in swing states like Pennsylvania.

Since 2020, attempts by tech companies and academic researchers to crack down on American-made disinformation have drawn accusations of censorship from Republicans. And some tech firms, chiefly Elon Musk-owned X (formerly known as Twitter), have pulled back on their efforts to police political content this election cycle.

For its part, Microsoft has tried to carve out a different lane. “What you’ll find is we’ve been more vocal about what we’ve seen this cycle than any year before,” Badanes said. “We feel like the American public deserves more information, not less.” Listen to the full interview."

'Obeying Fascism in Advance,' National Archivist Sanitized US Museum; Common Dreams, October 31, 2024

Jessica Corbett , Common Dreams; 'Obeying Fascism in Advance,' National Archivist Sanitized US Museum

"Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journal reporting that "U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history."...

Others slammed the reported conduct by Shogan, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, and her advisers as "disgraceful" and "totally unacceptable."

Shogan had her initial Senate confirmation hearing in September 2022, around six weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation first raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee now facing Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election. That federal case against Trump—which is still playing out in court—began with the National Archives discovering he had taken boxes of materials.

The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum—home to the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence—and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.

"Visitors shouldn't feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed," according to the newspaper. "Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency's budget—or a potential Trump administration.""

Russia Escalates Effort to Subvert Election and ‘Instill Fear in Voters,’ U.S. Says; The New York Times, November 4, 2024

 Julian E. Barnes and Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times; Russia Escalates Effort to Subvert Election and ‘Instill Fear in Voters,’ U.S. Says

"Russian groups and other foreign adversaries have unleashed an extensive disinformation campaign to undermine confidence in the election, and senior U.S. officials are worried that Moscow’s efforts could continue to stoke political discord until the election is certified in January...

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the F.B.I. said in a joint statement that foreign adversaries led by Russia were “conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”

In recent weeks, the intelligence agencies have dramatically stepped up their alerts. Two weeks ago, they warned of post-election violence. Over the last 10 days, they have now issued three warnings about Russian attempts to undermine faith in the election. And Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said her organization would give regular updates Tuesday to inform the public of threats to the election."

A deepfake showed MLK Jr. backing Trump. His daughter calls it ‘vile.’; The Washington Post, November 4, 2024

 Pranshu Verma, The Washington Post; A deepfake showed MLK Jr. backing Trump. His daughter calls it ‘vile.’

"The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice on Monday condemned an artificially generated video of the Civil Rights leader praising former president Donald Trump, as both parties court Black voters ahead of Election Day.

The video, posted Sunday night on the social network X by a pro-Trump account called MAGA Resource, falsely depicted King urging Black people to vote for Trump, claiming he did “more for the Black community than any other president.” By late Monday it had garnered over 10 million views...

During the 2024 election, AI-generated misinformation has repeatedly gone viral, drawing attention from regulators and observers watching for the effect AI may have on the democratic process. AI experts are unsure how much impact this content has had on changing people’s opinions of the candidates or their choices at the ballot box.

In March, the BBC unearthed dozens of AI-generated false images portraying Black people supporting Trump. X owner Elon Musk, who supports Trump, in July targeted Biden’s replacement in the race, sharing on X an AI-generated audio deepfake of Vice President Kamala Harris falsely celebrating the president’s decision to drop out. The clip was viewed over 100 million times."

What AI knows about you; Axios, November 4, 2024

Ina Friend, Axios; What AI knows about you

"Most AI builders don't say where they are getting the data they use to train their bots and models — but legally they're required to say what they are doing with their customers' data.

The big picture: These data-use disclosures open a window onto the otherwise opaque world of Big Tech's AI brain-food fight.

• In this new Axios series, we'll tell you, company by company, what all the key players are saying and doing with your personal information and content.

Why it matters: You might be just fine knowing that picture you just posted on Instagram is helping train the next generative AI art engine. But you might not — or you might just want to be choosier about what you share.

Zoom out: AI makers need an incomprehensibly gigantic amount of raw data to train their large language and image models. 

• The industry's hunger has led to a data land grab: Companies are vying to teach their baby AIs using information sucked in from many different sources — sometimes with the owner's permission, often without it — before new laws and court rulings make that harder. 

Zoom in: Each Big Tech giant is building generative AI models, and many of them are using their customer data, in part, to train them.

• In some cases it's opt-in, meaning your data won't be used unless you agree to it. In other cases it is opt-out, meaning your information will automatically get used unless you explicitly say no. 
• These rules can vary by region, thanks to legal differences. For instance, Meta's Facebook and Instagram are "opt-out" — but you can only opt out if you live in Europe or Brazil.
• In the U.S., California's data privacy law is among the laws responsible for requiring firms to say what they do with user data. In the EU, it's the GDPR."

Ahead of US election, lawyers fight over ethics breach accusations; Reuters, November 2, 2024

Luc Cohen, Reuters; Ahead of US election, lawyers fight over ethics breach accusations

"After Donald Trump's bid to overturn his 2020 election loss, an advocacy group was launched to take on the lawyers who aided in his doomed effort, hitting them with more than 80 ethics complaints.

With Trump again the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency, his allies have fired back at this group, named the 65 Project. A pro-Trump nonprofit known as America First Legal has accused the 65 Project of engaging in a left-wing attempt to intimidate conservative lawyers, filing a bar complaint earlier this week against the 65 Project's top lawyer Michael Teter. The Oct. 28 complaint said Teter was targeting lawyers "based solely upon their representation of a disfavored client...

The 65 Project, named for the number of unsuccessful lawsuits it says were filed to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden's win, says its mission is to deter lawyers from bringing false election claims. In September, the group pledged to spend at least $100,000 on advertisements in legal journals in battleground states warning lawyers not to risk losing their law license by helping Trump.

America First Legal, a nonprofit founded in 2021 by former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller, harshly criticized the ads on its website in announcing its complaint against Teter. The group has increasingly focused on the election this year after previously bringing suits challenging diversity and migration policies."

2 more Russian disinformation videos targeting U.S. election are circulating online, sources say; CBS New, November 2, 2024

Margaret Brennan, Robert Legare, James LaPorta, Rhona Tarrant , CBS News; 2 more Russian disinformation videos targeting U.S. election are circulating online, sources say

"U.S. officials believe another two fake videos circulating online and publicly identified by the FBI as an attempt to push false election security claims are likely part of a Russia-backed malign influence campaign ahead of Tuesday's presidential election, two sources familiar with the process told CBS News. 

The news comes after the FBI said in a statement Saturday that the videos "are not authentic, are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false."

The agency said that one of the videos falsely claims "the FBI has apprehended three linked groups committing ballot fraud, and the second relates to first gentleman Doug Emhoff."

The FBI in its statement did not say who was behind the videos, and when reached by CBS News, declined to comment further. 

It added that the two videos — using Justice Department and FBI signage within them and images of Emhoff — were being circulated as part of "attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI operations."

An ‘Interview’ With a Dead Luminary Exposes the Pitfalls of A.I.; The New York Times, November 3, 2024

Andrew Higgins, The New York Times; An ‘Interview’ With a Dead Luminary Exposes the Pitfalls of A.I.

"When a state-funded Polish radio station canceled a weekly show featuring interviews with theater directors and writers, the host of the program went quietly, resigned to media industry realities of cost-cutting and shifting tastes away from highbrow culture.

But his resignation turned to fury in late October after his former employer, Off Radio Krakow, aired what it billed as a “unique interview” with an icon of Polish culture, Wislawa Szymborska, the winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The terminated radio host, Lukasz Zaleski, said he would have invited Ms. Szymborska on his morning show himself, but never did for a simple reason: She died in 2012.

The station used artificial intelligence to generate the recent interview — a dramatic and, to many, outrageous example of technology replacing humans, even dead ones."

Disinformation Watchdogs Are Under Pressure. This Group Refuses to Stop.; The New York Times, November 1, 2024

Steven Lee Myers and Stuart A. Thompson, The New York Times; Disinformation Watchdogs Are Under Pressure. This Group Refuses to Stop

"Inside two small, windowless conference rooms on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, a group of students and researchers is prowling the internet to track the rumors and conspiracy theories eroding faith in this year’s presidential election...

“We can’t possibly track them all down,” Kate Starbird, a founder of the university’s Center for an Informed Public, said of the rumors, which began with a steady drip in recent weeks and have now turned into a torrent.

Four years ago, the center’s researchers were part of a larger coalition formed to debunk claims by President Donald J. Trump and others that the 2020 election was rigged. At its peak in the weeks around that vote, the effort had 120 analysts working around the clock to monitor disinformation.

In the last two years, however, that work came under a concerted political and legal attack from conservatives who portrayed it as a secret scheme to censor critics.

Called the Election Integrity Partnership, the coalition has since collapsed under the weight of that attack, smothered by civil lawsuits, Congressional subpoenas and records requests that have been time consuming and costly.

But the Center for an Informed Public has persevered, adapting to more limited resources, even as disinformation about the country’s electoral process has become more pernicious than ever."

'Targeted disinformation' warning: Beware of social media posts, Georgia Secretary of State says; Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), November 1, 2024

• GPB News Staff, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB); 'Targeted disinformation' warning: Beware of social media posts, Georgia Secretary of State say

"Halloween night, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger released a warning to voters: Social media posts may include disinformation from foreign sources.

This came after he announced that Georgia exceeded 50% statewide turnout among active voters, with 3,653,333 Georgians having cast ballots, 3,426,851 of those voting early as of Thursday.

“Earlier today, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia ID’s claiming to have voted multiple times," he wrote.

"This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen in this and other elections. It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 Presidential election," he said.

The viral video alleging voting fraud in Georgia, claiming a Haitian immigrant has voted multiple times in the sate, had spread widely across social media sites, including X, by Thursday evening.

"This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort," Raffensperger wrote. He made the assumption that the post could be the product of "Russian troll farms.""

'Above and beyond disgusting': Mount Pleasant parade display depicts Kamala Harris with hands bound; 90.5 WESA, October 31, 2024

Chris Potter, Tom Riese, 90.5 WESA; 'Above and beyond disgusting': Mount Pleasant parade display depicts Kamala Harris with hands bound

"(Note: This story below contains disturbing content and images.)

A community Halloween parade in Mount Pleasant Borough has drawn controversy after participants joined it with an elaborate display that appeared to depict Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with hands bound, accompanied by a vehicle with a roof-mounted rifle. Witnesses alternately described the woman as bound with chains or another restraint.

Images of the display spread across social media Thursday, the morning after the Westmoreland County community’s parade. It appeared to feature an ATV bedecked with flags, a Trump sign, and a roof-mounted sniper rifle, apparently made from cardboard. The photos also displayed a woman walking behind the vehicle with her hands bound. At least two men wearing dark sunglasses, apparently impersonating security forces, accompanied the vehicle.

Mayor Diane Bailey said she was ”shocked” by the display.

“The borough had no part in that parade,” she said. “That has been handled by the fire department and organized by the fire department for as long as I can remember, and I’m old.

“We were observers the same as the citizens who came out, and we were as shocked by it as anyone else would have been,” she said. “We had no idea that that particular float or whatever you want to call it was going to be in the parade...

The Westmoreland chapter of the Republican Party directed calls to a spokesman from the Trump campaign.

The Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP, in a statement Thursday, condemned the display as “a harmful symbol that evokes a painful history of violence, oppression, and racism that Black and Brown communities have long endured here in America."

 Annelise Gilbert , Bloomberg Law; AI Training Study to Come This Year, Copyright Office Says

"The Copyright Office’s report on the legal implications of training artificial intelligence models on copyrighted works is still expected to publish by the end of 2024, the office’s director told lawmakers.

Director Shira Perlmutter on Wednesday said the office aims to complete the remaining two sections of its three-part AI report in the next two months—one on the copyrightability of generative AI output and the other about liability, licensing, and fair use in regards to AI training on protected works."

Raffensperger asks X to take down ‘false’ video purporting to show voter fraud; The Hill, October 31, 2024

JULIANN VENTURA  , The Hill; Raffensperger asks X to take down ‘false’ video purporting to show voter fraud

"Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said that his office asked Elon Musk, the owner of X, and the leadership of other social platforms to take down a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs who claimed to have voted multiple times.

The secretary’s office said that the video is false and it is working to identify where the video originated. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is also investigating the matter, according to a press release."

Top election official says colleagues gave Elon Musk ‘hand-delivered’ notes to stop him from spreading misinformation; Fortune, November 1, 2024

SASHA ROGELBERG , Fortune; Top election official says colleagues gave Elon Musk ‘hand-delivered’ notes to stop him from spreading misinformation

"Elon Musk is accused of rampantly spreading election misinformation, and it has been a thorn in the side of election officials working double time to try and mitigate the spew of unfounded claims about meddling and alleged voter fraud. Some officials have even gone to measures like dispatching personal notes to the CEO of Tesla and X, who endorsed Donald Trump in July following as assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa.

“I’ve had my friends hand-deliver stuff to him,” Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County, Ariz.  recorder, told CNN. Richer, a Republican, has come under fire from conservatives for defending the 2020 election outcome that Trump lost.

But so far, the efforts of Richer’s colleagues have fallen short. “We’ve pulled out more stops than most people have available to try to put accurate information in front of [Musk],” Richer said. “It has been unsuccessful.”

Musk cast false information about election security, including insisting Americans vote in-person and on paper, citing a debunked conspiracy that ballot machines switched votes, at a Philadelphia town hall event on Oct. 18. Musk historically has voted by mail, and his super PAC, America PAC, has encouraged mail-in voting.

His social media platform X has also failed to quash election lies. A report from Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) on Wednesday found X’s Community Notes feature “failed to counter false” claims about the election, with 209 of 283 (74%) analyzed posts not showing notes correcting false information."