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FEC electronic filing system offline before midterms amid reported hacking attempt

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Coverage spectrum

Covered by 5 outlets, mostly right-leaning (60%).

5 articles in total. The spectrum counts each outlet once and leaves opinion out. How we measure bias

Engraved Federal Election Commission seal with American flag motif on textured stone wall.
Image via The HillHow images are chosenReport this image

The Federal Election Commission’s electronic filing system has been offline since around 10 p.m. ET Monday, according to the FEC’s status page, and was still down Tuesday. The outage stops candidates and political committees from filing 24- and 48-hour reports, a week before the November 3 midterm elections. Reuters, citing an email, reported that the FEC temporarily shut down web-facing services after hacking attempts. The FEC said its IT staff are working to restore service and gave no details about the reported attack. The FEC’s website search for reports is not affected.

Headline and summary written by Mantle’s AI from the coverage below, under published rules. How this works

What happened

Key points

Each point shows who reports it, from Far Left to Far Right.

  1. The FEC’s electronic filing system went offline around 10 p.m. ET Monday and was still down Tuesday, according to the agency’s status page.

    Reported byCenter2Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Center
    The Hill, Newsweek
    Right
    Washington Examiner

  2. The outage stops candidates and political committees from filing 24- and 48-hour reports a week before the November 3 midterm elections.

    Reported byCenter1Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Center
    Newsweek
    Right
    Washington Examiner

  3. Reuters reported, citing an email, that the FEC temporarily shut down web-facing services after hacking attempts.

    Reported byCenter1Far Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Center
    Newsweek
    Far Right
    RedState

  4. The FEC has not given details of the reported attack and says its IT staff are working to restore service.

    One side only: the centerReported byCenter2See the outletsHide the outlets
    Center
    The Hill, Newsweek

What is contested

Where accounts differ

Points the coverage does not agree on, and who says what.

  • Hackers attacked the FEC and caused the filing outage.

    Reuters, citing an email, reports that hacking attempts led the FEC to shut down web-facing services, and RedState reports the attack as apparent. The FEC confirmed the outage but gave no details of an attack.

How each side tells it

Compare views

Every side reports that the FEC’s electronic filing system was offline on Tuesday, a week before the midterms. The center’s coverage centers on the outage and the agency’s updates, while the right’s headlines differ, with RedState leading on a hacking report and the Washington Examiner on the timing.

  • the left

    No coverage yet

    No left-leaning outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

  • the center

    2 outlets

    Headlines lead with the outage: The Hill calls it an hours-long outage, while Newsweek ties it to a hacking attempt it attributes to a report.

    FEC electronic filing system hit with hours-long outage
    The HillCenterAll center headlines

  • the right

    3 outlets

    Headlines differ: far-right RedState leads with a report of hackers targeting the FEC, while the Washington Examiner centers on outages a week before the midterms.

    Report: Hackers Targeting US Federal Election Commission
    RedStateFar RightAll right-leaning headlines

The words they chose

Language to notice

Words that carry a judgement beyond the facts. Tap a highlighted word anywhere on the page to see why.

Mantle found no loaded language in this coverage. Every headline and opening was checked against Mantle’s published word list, and Mantle’s AI read 4 of the 5 articles in context when it wrote the analysis. Straight reporting often has none.

See for yourself

Side by side

What each side leads with and what it leaves out. Open a side to read its headlines.

From the left

0 outlets

No left-leaning outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

From the center

2 outlets

Leads with

  • the outage and its duration
  • the FEC’s status updates
  • the reported hacking attempt, attributed to Reuters
See the 2 headlines from the centerHide the headlines
  • NewsweekCenter

    Federal Election Commission Offline After Hacking Attempt: Report

    The FEC confirmed that its electronic filing system remained offline Tuesday but did not give details about the reported attack.

    Read at Newsweek (opens in a new tab)
  • The HillCenter

    FEC electronic filing system hit with hours-long outage

    The Federal Election Commission's electronic filing system has been down for hours on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson who confirmed the agency's IT teams are working to restore the service. …

    Read at The Hill (opens in a new tab)

From the right

3 outlets

Leads with

  • the reported hacking attempt
  • the outage’s timing before the midterms
  • the offline filing system
See the 3 headlines from the rightHide the headlines
  • TownhallFar Right

    Federal Election Commission Targeted in Cyberattack One Week Before Midterms

    The Federal Election Commission has been forced to shut down its website after a hacking attempt, the agency announced on Tuesday afternoon.

    Read at Townhall (opens in a new tab)
  • Washington ExaminerRight

    FEC faces website filing system outages the week before midterm elections

    The Federal Election Commission experienced a filing system outage on Tuesday, hindering candidates and political action committees from filing 24- and 48-hour finance reports with a week to go before the midterm elections. …

    Read at Washington Examiner (opens in a new tab)
  • RedStateFar Right

    Report: Hackers Targeting US Federal Election Commission

    Hackers have apparently staged a cyberattack on the U.S., specifically, on the Federal Elections Commission, or FEC. Reuters reports that the FEC has temporarily shut down its web-facing services while it deals with the attack.

    Read at RedState (opens in a new tab)

The stories you read build My Mix, a private picture of which sides cover the stories you choose, kept on this device. What is My Mix?

The left is Far Left and Left together. The right is Right and Far Right together. Every outlet keeps its own five-point rating.

Who reported it when

How the coverage built up

  • Left

    No report yet

    From the outlets Mantle follows

  • Center

    First to report

    The Hill, Oct 27, 3:52 PM EDT

  • Right

    11 min later

    Its first report, Oct 27, 4:03 PM EDT

See the order the outlets reported inHide the order
  1. The HillCenterOct 27, 3:52 PM EDT
  2. RedStateFar RightOct 27, 4:03 PM EDT
  3. Washington ExaminerRightOct 27, 4:26 PM EDT
  4. NewsweekCenterOct 27, 4:55 PM EDT
  5. TownhallFar RightOct 27, 7:00 PM EDT

Times are the ones the outlets published in their own feeds, in Eastern time. Opinion is left out.

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