Tim Harper
@tharper.bsky.social
230 followers 190 following 37 posts
Elections and Democracy Lead @cendemtech.bsky.social | Fmr Elections policy at Meta
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
tharper.bsky.social
#CISA is still refusing to come clean on the results of its election security review. As I say in this @newyorker.com piece, keeping election officials in the dark only helps bad actors. But new information is emerging and a picture is taking shape. Let’s talk about it: 🧵👇 bsky.app/profile/newy...
newyorker.com
In the past seven weeks, Donald Trump has been hard at work on his long-standing pet project: decimating free and fair elections. And, as with the rest of the President’s calamitous agenda, he is doing it in full view of the American people.
Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections
Now that Trump has installed election deniers throughout his Administration, he has been busy dismantling the guardrails protecting voting and voters.
www.newyorker.com
tharper.bsky.social
LIVE THRED: The Senate is holding Sean Plankey’s nomination hearing to lead CISA right now.Lawmakers must demand answers on why CISA is scaling back even as cyber and physical threats to elections surge. My @cdt.org blog on the key questions for Plankey's hearing: cdt.org/insights/cis...
Reposted by Tim Harper
Reposted by Tim Harper
isabelalinzer.bsky.social
Really important to keep our eye on the ball with AI & elections, even between cycles and especially as CISA is gutted. @stuartathompson.bsky.social + @stevenleemyers.bsky.social do that here. Recent related research from my @cdt.org colleagues below🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/t...
A.I. Is Starting to Wear Down Democracy
www.nytimes.com
tharper.bsky.social
A great Friday read by my @cdt.org colleague @isabelalinzer.bsky.social laying out how global civil society groups leveraged AI to combat AI threats in 2024
Reposted by Tim Harper
beckerdavidj.bsky.social
This is an excellent, well-researched and sourced piece about the real-world consequences of eradicating DHS' election security expertise, from @sashaingber.bsky.social. Vendors and others no longer trust the administration not to misuse sensitive info.

sashaingber.substack.com/p/election-c...
Election companies stop sharing cyber data with DHS
America's top vendors fear that data they submit on cyberattacks and vulnerabilities may be used against them. CISA has not provided them assurances.
sashaingber.substack.com
Reposted by Tim Harper
brennancenter.org
Since Citizens United, dark money groups have spent at least $4.3 billion on federal elections. Our latest analysis from
@annalecta.bsky.social tracks dark money spending in the 2024 election cycle.
Dark Money Hit a Record High of $1.9 Billion in 2024 Federal Races
Spending by groups that do not disclose their donors has increased and become harder to trace.
www.brennancenter.org
Reposted by Tim Harper
ericjgeller.com
As CISA's Stakeholder Engagement Division braces for big cuts, an official in SED says more than 60 employees are resigning, including >50% of those who work on international partnerships (one of the offices Trump's budget would cut). www.linkedin.com/posts/gregor... (h/t @samsabin.bsky.social )
Reposted by Tim Harper
politico.com
Exclusive: Trump plans to sign a memorandum today targeting a major Democratic fundraising platform with help from AG Pam Bondi.
Trump to target ActBlue in presidential memorandum
The action is expected to come Thursday.
www.politico.com
Reposted by Tim Harper
Reposted by Tim Harper
ericjgeller.com
Scoop: Boyden Rohner, Assistant Director of CISA's Integrated Operations Division, is taking the Trump administration's early-retirement offer and leaving.

Rohner told IOD staff during a Monday afternoon town-hall meeting that featured a lot of employee questions & anxiety about looming CISA cuts.
Reposted by Tim Harper
eileenguo.bsky.social
SCOOP: sources tell me that the State Dept plans to eliminate its only office to counter foreign disinformation, as soon as today, delivering a win to foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China—and the office's mostly conservative critics.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...
US office that counters foreign disinformation is being eliminated, say officials
Conservative critics have long accused the department of helping to censor the American right.
www.technologyreview.com
Reposted by Tim Harper
megangray.bsky.social
Next week, are you in town for the Meta antitrust trial, the Google Search Remedy trial, or the IAPP privacy conference?

Lucky you, all the DC tech policy peeps will be gathered Tues eve at CDT Spring Fling - join us!

cdt.org/event/2025-s...
2025 Spring Fling
CDT is pleased to announce our 2025 Spring Fling, a celebration during IAPP’s Global Privacy Summit. Join us on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 8:00–10:30 PM at Dirty Habit in Washington, D.C.—you won’t want...
cdt.org
Reposted by Tim Harper
ericjgeller.com
The cyber team inside DHS's Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans will be cut from 20-25 to 8 by June as part of DHS HQ's massive downsizing, per a person familiar with the matter.
Reposted by Tim Harper
taniel.bsky.social
Bombshell in North Carolina: the state's GOP-dominated Court of Appeals just sided with the GOP candidate in last year's supreme court race.

Their decision would toss roughly 60,000 ballots (!) that have been counted, & likely hand the election to GOP instead of incumbent Dem Justice who won it.
Reposted by Tim Harper
kylegriffin1.bsky.social
Breaking WaPo:

Members of Trump's National Security Council, including national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by WaPo and interviews with three U.S. officials. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Waltz and staff used Gmail for government communications, officials say
Trump’s national security adviser is trying to manage his way out of a crisis. But new revelations about his team’s operational security are piling up in the inbox.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by Tim Harper
taniel.bsky.social
Heading into Election Day, 674K people already voted in Wisconsin. That's more than a third of last supreme court race.

So:
1. Dane & Milwaukee counties make up 31.8% of this electorate.

That compares to 28.5% at the equivalent point in November 2024, & 33.4% at equivalent point in April 2023.
tharper.bsky.social
The direct application of political censorship claims to foreign-but-politically-aligned messages has become the preferred escalation to justify eliminating work to counter foreign influence. A great thread by @noupside.bsky.social tracking this HFAC hearing
noupside.bsky.social
Rep Huizenga, chair of H Foreign Activities Committee, is framing the hearing: do we really even NEED the capacity to tackle foreign propaganda & influence? Because right wing media claims that doing so is "censoring conservatives", and shouldn't we take the Twitter Files revelations into account?