Free Republic

There is one type of diversity that university officials are manifestly hostile to: diverse viewpoints critical of the policies which they are pursuing. "I've tried opposing affirmative action and I'm no longer invited to sit on committees," University of Pennsylvania law school professor Amy Wax said at the Cato Institute on September 15, 2016. Anyone who dissents, as a she did, faces a university "monoculture," and risks "marginalization, even ostracism." That universities are wedded to the idea is particularly ironic, Wax noted at the Constitution Day conference, because "Few universities have competitive entry in admissions." They don't reject that many...

After a string of high-profile cyberbullying and revenge-porn incidents, the Italian Chamber of Deputies has put forward a bill that will do nothing to prevent these abuses, and everything to allow for rampant, unaccountable censorship of the Italian internet, without rule of law or penalty for abuse. Under the proposed law, the "site manager" of Italian media, including bloggers, newspapers and social networks would be obliged to censor "mockery" based on "the personal and social condition" of the victim -- that is, anything the recipient felt was personally insulting. The penalty for failing to take action is a fine of...

TORONTO - Canada is one of the few countries in the world where the first ‘tweetcast’ in NFL history cannot be viewed. Rogers is blacking out tonight’s New York Jets at Buffalo Bills game on Twitter, coast to coast. The NFL has arranged for the next 10 Thursday Night Football telecasts to be streamed live on Twitter, accessible either on the social media giant’s website or app. That is, the root TV feed from either CBS (this week) or NBC can be watched live, for free, on mobile phone, tablet, PC or connected TV. Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet cable network...

Washington (AFP) - Facebook, Twitter and news organizations including Agence France-Presse have joined a coalition of media and technology groups seeking to filter out online misinformation and improve news quality on social networks. First Draft News, which is backed by Google, announced Tuesday that some 20 news organizations will be part of its partner network to share information on best practices for journalism in the online age. Jenni Sargent, managing director of First Draft, said the partner network will help advance the organization's goal of improving news online and on social networks. ...

The network of more than 30 news and technology companies also includes CNN and Buzzfeed. Facebook and Twitter have joined a network of over 30 news and technology companies to tackle fake news and improve the quality of information on social media, the group said on Tuesday. First Draft Coalition, formed in June 2015 with the backing of Alphabet’s Google GOOG -1.21% , said it would create a voluntary code of practice, promote news literacy among social media users, and launch a platform where members can verify questionable news stories. The platform will be launched by the end of October,...

..... When Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses came out in 1989, Viking Penguin, the British and American publisher of the novel, was subjected to daily Islamist harassment. ...the London office resembled "an armed camp," with police protection, metal detectors and escorts for visitors. In Viking's New York offices, dogs sniffed packages and the place was designated a "sensitive location". Many bookshops were attacked and many even refused to sell the book. Viking spent about $3 million on security measures in 1989, the fatal year for Western freedom of expression. Nonetheless, Viking never flinched. It was a miracle that the novel...

A co-founder of Facebook is donating $20 million of his fortune to Democratic coffers in a late and likely consequential move to help defeat Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The funds are a surprising infusion of cash from an individual who has never before been active in politics. Dustin Moskovitz, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with a net worth of more than $10 billion, announced early Friday that he and his wife would make a historically large donation to a half-dozen Democratic groups, including those backing Hillary Clinton. The donations, once issued, will make Moskovitz the third...

Both houses of Congress are out of session for another week and time is rapidly running out for lawmakers to save the internet. When Congress comes back into session next Tuesday, it will only have a few short weeks to accomplish one of the most important tasks before it: ensuring that control of the internet does not fall into the hands of those who would actively censor it to the detriment of free speech and American interests. On Sept. 30, the United States is poised to hand over control of the internet to the United Nations, following a years-long push...

Facebook is censoring a video created by Green candidate Dr. Jill Stein supporter Matt Orfalea that exposes PBS Newshour cutting Stein’s criticism of Hillary Clinton, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and Obamacare. Breitbart News reported on the Orfalea’s video exposing the Hillary bias and now it appears Facebook is censoring the exposure of censorship. Orfalea told Breitbart News: “It’s insane.”

When I went to my first Trump rally in California earlier this year I noticed two male protestors holding up signs with a picture of Donald Trump next to a Nazi flag that read: “Stop Nazi Trump.” What I found so shocking about this was not the sign itself but the irony of this picture. As they held up these signs, hordes of protesters around them spit, swore and physically pushed Trump supporters -- including women and children – as they walked in and out of the event. The irony is that these protestors that are so quick to cast...

In today’s public policy arena, winning ideas rarely are decided by sound logic, accurate facts, or even by the most votes. Instead, content filters and algorithms, meticulously engineered by social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, intentionally steer public debate in the direction of their owners’ personal politics; and, not coincidentally, toward the politics of their liberal friends in Washington and Sacramento.For starters, consider Facebook – the Big Daddy of social media. There have been numerous reports of Facebook’s algorithm taking down popular pages of pro-gun organizations. But even this example of the “new censorship” pales when viewed in the...

Tim Cook will mark his five-year anniversary as the CEO of Apple by doing something that his predecessor Steve Jobs typically avoided: hosting a fundraiser for a presidential candidate. On Wednesday, Cook and Lisa Jackson, Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) head of environmental initiatives, will host an event in California to raise money for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Those invited have reportedly been asked to contribute as much as $50,000. Cook is just the latest in a growing list of tech executives and venture capitalists working to raise big money to help Clinton beat Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked tech companies...

The internet is abuzz this week with new revelations about the towering edifice of hypocrisy and left-wing censorship being built by the controllers of Twitter. Exactly four weeks ago, Twitter permanently banned gay conservative commentator and humorist Milo Yiannopoulos from the platform, claiming that he incited abuse of comic actress Leslie Jones after, get this, she reacted harshly to his critical review of her performance in the new “Ghostbusters” film. The exchange was fairly innocuous, with Jones acting peeved and Milo displaying the rapier wit of a sharp stand-up comedian, and the final straw came when Jones blocked him, and...

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign has sent out a fundraising email arguing the website Breitbart News has no “right to exist,” and suggests that if elected, the website will be shut down entirely. “We’ve had a conservative media in this country for a while,” says the email, sent Thursday and signed by deputy communications director Christina Reynolds. “I don’t always like what they have to say, but I respect their role and their right to exist Reynolds’ acknowledgment that the regular conservative media has a “right to exist,” though, is used to contrast it with Breitbart, which apparently has no...

Last night (August 17, 2016) a friend of mine want to take some friend to see "Hillary's America — The Secret History of the Democratic Party," the newest documentary film by Dinesh D'Souza. It had been showing at quite a few theaters locally but he suddenly could not find any theaters showing it near Modesto, Stockton or Lodi. He asked me to see if I could find where it was showing. I tried Sacramento. None. . . not a single theater in a city with a metropolitan population over over 1.5 million was showing that film, when just last week...

The Department of Commerce is set to hand off the final vestiges of American control over the Internet to international authorities in less than two months, officials have confirmed. The department will finalize the transition effective Oct. 1, Assistant Secretary Lawrence Strickling wrote on Tuesday, barring what he called "any significant impediment." The move means the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which is responsible for interpreting numerical addresses on the Web to a readable language, will move from U.S. control to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a multistakeholder body based in Los Angeles that includes countries such as...

ALBANY - Government reform and other groups are urging Gov. Cuomo to veto or fix a bill requiring more disclosure by Super PACs and non-profit lobbying organizations... The bill would require Super PACs known as independent expenditure to disclose more about their donors... Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, charged that the bill "is intended to squash advocacy groups' opposition to government officials and actions." The Lawyers Alliance for New York and Family Planning Advocates said the bill could have unintended consequences. "The bill will affect (non-profit groups) and their donors, whose contributions have nothing to do with lobbying,"...

Global warming alarmists resist any science that doesn’t toe their line, and one physicist in the UK is speaking out about how her research on global cooling is ruffling their feathers. Northumbria University at Newcastle Professor Valentina Zharkova has been researching what she believes are indicators of a coming period of global cooling. According to The Washington Times, her research, “Irregular heartbeat of the Sun driven by double dynamo” was presented in July at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales and also posted to the website of The Royal Astronomical Society: Her sunspot modeling indicates a reduced solar magnetic...

In 2015, then-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo secretly ordered employees to filter out abusive and hateful replies to President Barack Obama during a Q&A session, sources tell BuzzFeed News. According to these sources, the May 2015 #AskPOTUS town hall came out of Twitter senior leadership’s frustration with the fact that platforms like Reddit had become home to celebrity Q&As.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ordered employers to crack down on employees daring to wear t-shirts or caps with the "Don't Tread on Me" slogan. The slogan traces back to the American Revolution. "What may have been appropriate as an expression of resistance against British subjugation in 1776 is completely inappropriate today," claims EEOC Chairwoman Jenny Yang. "Our government is a democratically elected government. It is not treading on anyone. From time to time our government may have to guide people toward correct thought and behavior. There is no individual right of resistance against this guidance. There is no...