Free Republic

French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday. Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only 'dozens of cases a year'.

As artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology takes off, the Biden Administration is allegedly pursuing efforts to make sure that such new technology adopts a left-wing worldview by default. According to Fox News, the report comes from the watchdog group American Accountability Foundation (AAF), which said in a new memo that top officials in the Biden White House are attempting to program “dangerous ideologies” into new A.I. systems. “Under the guise of fighting ‘algorithmic discrimination’ and ‘harmful bias,’ the Biden administration is trying to rig AI to follow the woke left’s rules,” said Tom Jones, the president of AAF. “Biden is being...

France has imposed a partial ban on internet services from Monday across parts of the country as riots continued for the fifth day on Sunday. The unrest was triggered after a 17-year-old was killed by a police officer in a suburb of Paris city on Tuesday. Nahel, who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot at point-blank for driving off his car during a police traffic check. On Sunday, France’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the restrictions are “intended to prevent the misuse of social networks and online platforms to coordinate illegal actions and incite violence”. The...

VIDEOIs YouTube telling creators who filed video appeals to have their channels remonetized that they have "carefully reviewed" their appeal videos when in fact NO ONE actually looked at them? In my case, I have evidence that they DID NOT look at my video appeal. Not surprising since I sent the appeal video to them yesterday (June 26) AFTERNOON and by 2:08 AM PDT on June 27 they somehow managed to not only "see" my video but also reviewed and passed judgement upon it. "See" in quotes because they did NOT see the video.As a fringe benefit for seeing the...

A new poll found a surprising percentage of Gen Z Americans supporting the idea of the government placing cameras in every home in order to prevent crime and abuse. The finding was a part of a poll of 2,000 Americans by the Cato Institute. The poll asked whether Americans supported "the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity.” Overall, very few Americans supported the idea, about 14 percent, or one out of every seven respondents. A large majority, 75%, opposed the idea, and only 10% said they weren't sure. But among...

Children raised in an atmosphere of fear become adults who prioritize security over liberty.The good news is that "only" a minority of younger American adults favor Big Brother-style surveillance of our home life. The bad news is that we're discussing this because it's a disturbingly large share supporting such a totalitarian intrusion. Worse, the idea seems to be gaining acceptance. We either need to get a handle on what's going on here, or else potentially suffer lives monitored by unblinking eyes of the state, imposed by popular demand. The Rattler is a weekly newsletter from J.D. Tuccille. If you care...

EXCLUSIVE: Latin Mass Churchgoers Witnessed Suspicious Activity After FBI’s ‘Radical-Traditional Catholic’ MemoFIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Two parishioners at a Latin Mass Catholic church in rural Northern Virginia say they witnessed suspicious activity from what looked like FBI vehicles in February, a month after the FBI’s Richmond office published a now-rescinded internal memo focused on “radical-traditional Catholics.”The FBI’s Washington, D.C., office, which monitors the church’s area, denied any knowledge of such activity in a statement to The Daily Signal.The two witnesses told The Daily Signal that they saw two cars approach the church, drive through the parking lot as if they...

The Biden administration is looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chatrooms after U.S. intelligence agencies failed to spot classified Pentagon documents circulating online for weeks, according to a senior administration official and a congressional official briefed on the matter. The possible change in the intelligence-gathering process is just one potential shift as officials scramble to determine not only how the documents leaked but also how to prevent another damaging incident. President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were briefed about the disclosure last week, administration officials say, but the secret documents appeared online in early...

Video creators that have been uploading to YouTube are very familiar with the over-the-top censorship at that site that has been going on for years. However, it is interesting to get the perspective of someone who has discovered this YouTube censorship perhaps for the first time. Even more interesting is that Helen Lewis of the Atlantic magazine can hardly be considered a conservative with a political axe to grind. So let us now go on a voyage of censorship discovery with Lewis in her Friday piece, "What You Can’t Say on YouTube."

At the February 7 Pontotoc Aldermen meeting Pontotoc Police Chief Randy Tutor addressed concerns and assured a small group of residents that the police department’s soon to be installed Flock Safety cameras would be used solely to fight crime and bolster safety and not invade or spy on the privacy of Pontotoc residents. At the January 17 board meeting Pontotoc Aldermen voted unanimously to approve a two year subscription contract with Flock Safety Inc. for operation of eight of their license plate reader cameras in the city of Pontotoc. Pontotoc County resident Adam Miller and Pontotoc resident Kyle Eubank addressed...

Fauci Says Covid Vax Hardly Works Alex Berenson | In fact, a bombshell paper he co-authored last month suggests ALL vaccines for common respiratory viruses may face intractable hurdles. And that's not even the worst news. I'm not exaggerating.Last month, three scientists pointed out flu shots barely work and couldn’t be approved based on the standards used for vaccines like measles:“After more than 60 years of experience with influenza vaccines, very little improvement in vaccine prevention of infection has been noted… our best approved influenza vaccines would be inadequate for licensure for most other vaccine-preventable diseases.” [emphasis added]True. Several rigorous...

In September 2021, the CDC held a meeting discussing the potential to track the unvaccinated. See video.

The FBI revealed how the bureau uses the CIA and National Security Agency to probe the private lives of Americans without a warrant in its updated rulebook, which is the first version made public since the Obama administration. The handbook, rewritten in 2021, confirms a decade-old leak showcasing the bureau’s collaboration with the CIA and NSA for FBI probes that may involve surveillance without court orders against people not accused of any crimes. Such probes are known as “assessments” at the FBI. The revelations will fuel critics who have long accused the FBI of abusing its national security surveillance powers.

The company's broad definition of "misleading information" and its deference to authority invited censorship by proxy.Twitter's ban on "COVID-19 misinformation," which Elon Musk rescinded after taking over the platform in late October, mirrored the Biden administration's broad definition of that category in two important respects: It disfavored perspectives that dissented from official advice, and it encompassed not just demonstrably false statements but also speech that was deemed "misleading" even when it was arguably or verifiably true. In a recent Free Press article, science writer David Zweig shows what that meant in practice, citing several striking examples of government-encouraged speech suppression...

What the Rhine case reveals is the danger that a partnership between an equally politicized federal government and Big Tech presents to disfavored groups. Google gave the feds the personal data of nearly 1,500 individuals based on cell phone location data indicating their presence near the Capitol complex on Jan. 6, 2021. The Department of Justice sought substantially more information, as well, according to a recent court filing, including data on Jan. 6 cell phone users wholly outside the Capitol. These facts, coupled with Google’s apparent disregard for the privacy rights of its customers, expose the potential for the government...

Foreboding Signals Amid Discovery the FBI Can Launch Pegasus Cell Phone Targeting With Appointment of Special CounselNovember 22, 2022 | Sundance | 39 CommentsIf you read the article about the “Pegasus Project”, spyware created to infect cell phones that was marketed by Israeli intelligence through a company called NSO {Go Deep Here}, then you essentially know the background. Pegasus is “no click” targeting spyware that can be deployed against cellular phones, simply by inputting the phone number and transmitting to it.The Guardian previously reported,“Claudio Guarnieri, who runs Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said once a phone was infected with Pegasus, a...

This is like something out of ‘Black Mirror’The 2022 Qatar World Cup is an exercise in two things: How much horror FIFA is willing to tolerate for money, and how many personal liberties people are willing to give up in order to see the event live. Oh, also global soccer prowess, I guess — but that feels tertiary at this point. Adding to the laundry list of rules foreigners will be required to follow while in Qatar is a new Covid app called “Ehteraz,” which must be downloaded by every visitor over the age of 18. It’s being billed as...

One of the biggest social media platforms in the world has allegedly been spying on the private messages and personal data of users who believe that voter fraud took place in the 2020 election, and has subsequently been handing this information over to the FBI. According to the New York Post, the alleged surveillance operation by Facebook and its coordination with the government was confirmed by several anonymous sources in the Department of Justice (DOJ). The sources allege that employees at Facebook have been red-flagging any suspicious private messages over the last 19 months, sending the information directly to the...

Two journalists surface today with two different aspects to the same big picture story. First, Julie Kelly notes the DOJ is using social media chat messages as evidence in court against J6 detainees: “DOJ and Big Tech are working seamlessly to excavate private messages and info from deleted accounts to use as incriminating evidence for J6ers.” (link) Second, Miranda Devine is writing in the New York Post about Facebook spying on private messages to identify people who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election (link) This ‘surveillance system‘ has been of great interest to CTH for several years, in part...

Show of hands- True or false: The moment that force will become necessary to maintain freedom in America will be easy to identify.