When reporter Elle Reeve is recognized at the airport, it's often by members of the alt-right: the online white-nationalists who organized the violent Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and who originated much of today's political rhetoric. How did a bunch of 4chan users feeding Microsoft's Tay chatbot hateful language become such a potent political force?

Elle Reeve joins Endless Thread to discuss her book Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.

Show notes:

• Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics. (Amazon)
• Charlottesville: Race and Terror (Vice)

We're in your feed today to share an episode from a podcast we think you might like called the WIRED Politics Lab.

As Election 2024 quickly approaches, our news feeds and timelines are filled with conspiracy theories, disinformation campaigns, and technological shenanigans. Join host Leah Feiger on WIRED Politics Lab as she cuts through the noise and helps you make sense of it all with the help of various experts and journalists.

In this episode, Leah is joined by writer and critic Hunter Harris. They discuss how Kamala Harris is harnessing social media to propel her campaign and what comes next in the run-up to November.

We hope you enjoy.

Listen to and follow WIRED Politics Lab here: https://listen.wired.com/politicslab_feeddrop

They were scammers. But they weren't going to scam just anyone. They were going to scam Big Tech. And they almost got away with it.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors accused a North Carolina man of stealing royalty payments from music streaming platforms for seven years. He allegedly used artificial intelligence to create songs by fake bands and then play those songs to get paid.

The incident resembles a scheme between 2013 and 2015 when a Lithuanian man bilked Google and Facebook out of more than $100 million before getting caught.

Endless Thread's Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell bring two stories of grifts gone wrong.

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Credits: This episode was produced and co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.