While I'm sure that happens, as it will in a forum that is wide open to the public, doesn't screen members, has a "do not say" list that covers half the front page, and has a whole list of media that you can't post from, link to, or even mention, that's to be expected. Most of the rot here is coming from within by long time members due to what I mentioned. I have been here for a total of 22 years and I have watched it evolve to this.
Truth Social is no better because it has to abide by the censorship rules imposed by Google and others.
Feds can just sign up in here and agitate or gather information at will. Free speech is an illusion due to being wide open to the public and worrying about lawsuits. Everybody knows what Pay to Play is. The more you pay, the more you play. We have seen that with some of the long-time members that are never reprimanded for what they say or who they harass.
People that truly believe in free speech are migrating to private forums that actually allow free speech without worrying about being spied on and they don't ask for money to censor your not-so-free speech. Most of been booted off of all other social media. People won't continue to donate to a site if they are censored. In other words, they are fed up and jumping ship. The owners of Free Republic have no choice, IMO, to not censor, as long as they are public. People are figuring that out and leaving. Their donations go with them. Jim owns the board. If he wants to censor bad language or anything else, that's his right. We agreed to that when we signed up. Our choice is to go elsewhere.
I don't personally use bad language. I have been wearing big girl panties for a lot of years and I don't expect others to protect me from it. I don't use that language but if somebody else does, I am adult enough to ignore it and move on. I will never censor somebody else to force them to adopt my beliefs. Anybody that does while touting a belief in free speech, IMO, is a hypocrite.
But we can trounce them for being shills!
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I, for one, will continue to donate to FR, despite the fact certain topics are off limits, and despite the fact that there are obvious shills hanging around.
It is still vastly superior in many ways to the big corporate media, ruled by shareholders and big advertisers ... and totally infiltrated by assets of various intel agencies.
The fight for freedom of thought has been going on for thousands of years, and is probably not ever going to be permanently resolved. "Orthodox" thinking will always try and exert control over everyone else's thoughts.