Free Republic

The encrypted-messaging service Signal is the application of choice for dissenters around the world. The app has been downloaded by more than 100 million users and boasts high-profile endorsements from NSA leaker Edward Snowden and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk. Signal has created the perception that its users, including political dissidents, can communicate with one another without fear of government interception or persecution. But the insider history of Signal raises questions about the app’s origins and its relationship with government—in particular, with the American intelligence apparatus. Such a relationship would be troubling, given how much we have learned, in recent years,...

Let's excuse our intrepid "watchdog" MSM. They're too busy rummaging through Sarah Palin's garbage to report on the actual sayings and doings by our actual Government officials. So here's report from Britain's Guardian on a speech by Alec Ross, the U.S. State Department's "Senior Advisor on Innovation": "Dictatorships are now more vulnerable than they have ever been before," he proclaimed at the Innovate Conference in London this week. "One thesis statement I want to emphasize is how (the internet) disrupts the exercise of power...because of the devolution of power from the nation state to the individual...the Internet has become the...

Rudy Giuliani says US diplomats were doing the bidding of George Soros in Ukraine, in interview with Glenn Beck Rudy Giuliani told Glenn Beck during an exclusive interview that U.S. diplomats were doing the bidding of billionaire philanthropist George Soros in Ukraine in a "massive pay-for-play" scheme that included falsifying evidence against President Donald Trump. Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, spoke to Beck on his program Wednesday about the claims being made against him by Democrats in their ongoing impeachment inquiry. "The anti-corruption bureau is a contradiction," said Giuliani about the bureau set up in Ukraine to root out corruption....

A Colorado judge's threatened contempt sanctions against Fox News investigative reporter Jana Winter—who refuses to reveal a confidential news source—has refocused public attention on how journalists operate. News must often be gathered from confidential sources, or not at all. Given how vital is the freedom of the press in a democracy, that confidentiality must be maintained. It is time that Congress recognize this and enact legislation that enables journalists to protect their confidential sources and newsgathering materials. Ms. Winter covered the July 20, 2012 mass shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 others in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater....

Congress is ironing out another of its continuing resolutions. Conservatives led by Ted Cruz are insisting that the resolution include language that would block the transition away from U.S. oversight of the Internet’s domain name system. Donald Trump has backed Cruz in this fight. Why is ongoing U.S. oversight so important? Because, as Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, says: Continuing U.S. oversight of the Internet’s domain name system protects the First Amendment rights of everyone who uses the Internet and prevents the creation of a global monopoly that one day could censor the Internet absent U.S. governance....

Just this morning Drudge sounded the alarm: 'UN COULD TAKE CONTROL OF INTERNET'. But it doesn't matter who Obama chooses. He announced that he would be giving away the internet, the earthly CROWN JEWEL of worldwide freedom. And knowing who he is, he will give it to people who believe in 'hate speech' and anything that censors meaningful opposition to his perverse agenda. Let's face facts. We are on the verge of losing the internet on September 30 -- this year. The only people to save us are the very republicans we criticize the most. We must eat humble pie...

Ted Cruz Says He ‘Cannot Overstate’ the ‘Threats’ to Internet Freedom, Independent News Websites Like Drudge Ted Cruz said Sunday evening that the “threats to Internet freedom” have “never been greater” and could have the potential of affecting independent online news outlets like the Drudge Report.Speaking to TheBlaze Sunday evening in Dallas, Texas, the Republican presidential candidate responded to reports that Congressional review of digital copyright law could threaten aggregator news websites. “I think threats to Internet freedom continue growing,” Cruz said. “This administration views the Internet as a threat.” The Texas senator cited the Federal Communications Commission’s move to...

The Obama Administration is giving up American control over the Internet, handing over its most important technical functions to a “multinational” body – perhaps even the U.N. But do we want Russia or China influencing whether we can create websites? Do we want the U.N. controlling key aspects of the world’s most powerful mode of communication – our free speech? America has kept the Internet free. Don’t let our nation sign over our freedom to dictators.

Late on February 15, JotForm lost access to jotform.com. The company soon discovered the U.S. government had seized the domain by lodging a request with the site’s domain registrar GoDaddy. Soon after, it had been taken down. Aytekin Tank, co-founder of Interlogy Internet Technologies, and owner of JotForm, later confirmed that he’d been in contact with the agent assigned to his case at the Secret Service. She was busy and couldn’t look at the site for a few days. So millions of web forms and thousands of customers were left without a service and no reason as to why this...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

Network neutrality is a simple concept: ISPs shouldn't play favorites with the content that goes over their parts of the Internet. It's a concept that harks back to the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) in 1991 when the first Internet carries agreed to share connections equally with each other. Although CIX is now largely forgotten, it's what started the Internet on its way from a backwater for researchers and schools to the omnipresent network in which we live, work, and play today. Now, Comcast, appears to be the first major ISP to break that old CIX rule of network neutrality. Level...

Internet shut-down in Iran ahead protests thelastcrusade.org Internet access in Tehran unavailable on Saturday, two days ahead of planned demonstrations in the Iranian capital. Iranian President Ahmadinejad, citing a “crisis” has shut-down internet access in Iran. In a move that echoes the Democrat's bill S.773 (David Rockefeller), private-sector computers in Iran have been disconnected from the Internet. According to AFP: “Sources close to Iran's technical services told AFP the cut was the result of "a decision by the authorities" rather than a technical breakdown. Telecommunications ministry officials were unavailable for comment.” The internet, SMS text messages and at times...

Government attempts to control the internet are growing. Net Freedom Forever is a new campaign working to publicize these threats to the internet, and to organize citizens in opposition. Some in Congress are looking for new ways to control the internet, and monitor what we do online. Take, for example, the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Act". While the bill was intended to stop "unlawful internet gambling" the legislation never actually spelled out what this means. As a result, the bill would have the unintended consequences of expanding government regulation of the internet and turning online payment transactions companies into informants and...

Everybody jokes about "TMI" these days: "Too much information," we say laughingly, when someone tells a story full of embarrassing detail about some personal foible or intimate relationship. But in our information-overloaded society, the concept of TMI is no joke. The information avalanche coming from all sides -- the Internet, PDAs, hundreds of television channels -- is burying us in extraneous data that prevent important facts and knowledge from reaching a broad audience. Lawyers are familiar with this phenomenon. In fact, they use it to their advantage: They know that if you want to hide damaging information about a case,...

Slay the AOL MonsterBy Robert LockeFrontPageMagazine.com | August 2, 2002 As a conservative columnist, it amazes me to get favorable e-mails from people whose addresses end in @aol.com. I mean, don't they know that AOL Time-Warner is an evil liberal media conglomerate and that they are thereby putting money into its pockets every month? Not to mention increasing its influence by enlarging its subscriber base? Don’t they know that these things matter? Therefore, I urge all my readers who use AOL to dump it and press politically sensible friends and family to do the same. CompuServe and GatewayNet are owned...