Scammers are working overtime as candidates push for donations, even as small as five dollars. With emotions running high, be cautious of fake headlines and misleading donation links.
The best free news streaming app you're not using yet
Following the latest election news can be frustrating for cord cutters without a cable streaming plan. There aren’t too many free outlets to watch the news online, and when they do pop up, they’re taken down just as fast as they appeared.
With so much disinformation floating around online, the lack of streaming news options makes understanding the results even more confusing. Tap or click here to see how you can spot election disinformation online.
Thankfully you don’t have to shell out for an expensive subscription to get the latest news on your phone or streaming device. This free streaming service pulls stories from local and national news to give you a custom newsfeed you can watch anywhere.
Haystack has the news you’re looking for
Haystack is a free streaming news app available for iOS, Android, Roku players, Amazon Fire TV devices, Apple TV boxes, and Android TV devices. You can also try it out on select smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Vizio.
Haystack generates a personalized newscast for you with stories from sources all over the country. You can subscribe to both local and national news as well as weather forecasts. You can switch between stories you’re interested in or let the news roll in with Haystack’s auto-generated news playlists.
And if you’d prefer to watch live news, you can catch live streams from networks like ABC, CBS and Yahoo Finance. News satire and comedy clips from late-night shows can also show up in your feed if you subscribe to them.
One of our favorite features is the news ticker at the bottom of videos you watch in full-screen mode. Updates will cycle through headlines, stocks and weather, and clicking on any of the ticker stories will automatically open the news clip it came from.
What’s the catch? Is there a downside to Haystack?
Haystack is a news aggregator, so it doesn’t have original programming of its own. Sources are limited to just a handful of major networks, and there are no options for streaming cable news channels like Fox News, CNN or MSNBC.
Some of the clips that show up in your feed will be a few days old by the time they reach you. Stories are not curated, so be aware that some of the pieces you see may not be breaking news.
Did you receive an email about your ballot? Read this before you click
The election may be coming to a close, but that doesn’t mean the disinformation will stop any time soon. Scammers and cybercriminals are still hunting for personal data and financial information using tricks like phishing sites and mass emails.
🗳️ Did you vote? In many states, that’s public information, but you have to file a request or pay a fee to obtain it. A new website, VoteRef, allows anyone to look up your name, address, age, party affiliation and whether you voted. Not all state info is there … yet. This feels like harassment just waiting to happen.
81 years old
The age of a Georgia woman who recently voted for the very first time with the help of her niece. Her husband said she didn’t need to vote … or even learn to read or write. Now that he’s passed away, she’s doing things she’s never done before. Good for you, Betty!
Not exactly brag-worthy: The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is tooting its own horn for no successful hacks during the U.S. election. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t interference. Russia ramped up its disinformation campaigns on social media, and several bogus bomb threats made at polling stations were traced back to them. And don’t forget China hacked phones belonging to President-elect Trump and JD Vance.
🚨 FBI alert: Fake videos are all over social media! One video claims the FBI busted three groups for “ballot fraud,” while another drags in Kamala Harris’ husband. There’s even a phony clip with people supposedly from Haiti claiming to vote illegally in Georgia counties. These are designed to mess with our trust in elections, so keep an eye out and don’t fall for it!
WTH? The Colorado Department of State posted a spreadsheet with partial passwords to its voting machines on its website. No biggie, they say, since each machine has two unique passwords, needs physical access and is stored in an ID-only area. Someone needs to get fired — now.
Don’t believe the text: Thousands of Pennsylvania residents got a text message that read, “Records show you voted” with a link to an official Pennsylvania site. The scammy organization behind it, “AllVote,” says it was a mistake. I call BS. Hit this link for your state’s official ballot tracker.
Think twice before snapping a ballot selfie: It might be illegal. Just ask Justin Timberlake, who posted a voting pic on Instagram in 2016, then deleted it after people in the comments schooled him on Tennessee law. Check your state here. Better yet, take a photo with your “I voted!” sticker instead.
Meta’s hiding political posts: A woman who usually pulls in millions of views on Instagram saw her audience drop 63% after using the word “vote” in 11 posts. One in five American adults gets their news from Instagram, but Meta still directs its algorithm away from content related to laws, elections, crimes or anything else controversial (paywall link). Yup, it’s happening on Facebook, too.
🕵🏼 Both sides are hiding AirTags on political signs: It’s to stop (and catch) thieves. Michigan detectives used one to track 72 stolen campaign signs … and then, they spent hours searching the wrong house. It wasn’t until they brought in the AirTag owner for a more precise location that they realized the signs were at a neighbor’s house, clearly visible through a window. People …
🚨 Watch out for election hallucinations: Cybercriminals are using ChatGPT to influence the upcoming U.S. elections, whipping up fake articles and misleading comments. OpenAI says, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, none of it has gone viral or built a real audience.” Yeah, right. Facebook is practically drowning in AI-generated clickbait crap.
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