Free Republic

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday said it disrupted Russian-directed foreign malign influence campaigns it referred to as “Doppelganger,” that sought to spread Russian government propaganda. The effort was meant to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies, and influence voters in the U.S. and elsewhere, the Justice Department said. Separately, the DOJ accused two Russian employees of RT, the Russian state-owned media outlet, of a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences while keeping the connection to Russia hidden. RT worked with an online content creation company in Tennessee, which was directed to...

The current unifying theme among a set of people who regard themselves as progressive, liberal, mainstream, respectable, and so on, is a spectacular punishment fetish. Arrest them arrest them arrest them arrest them, they helpfully explain about people who disagree with them about anything, ever. See, for an easy example of the discipline fetish, this quite popular reader-generated “diary” post from a few days ago at Daily Kos, arguing that Tulsi Gabbard’s “Quiet Skies” designation is a proper use of the state security apparatus against a domestic enemy: It seems to this reader that our intelligence services are merely doing...

Do we actually lead the free world in standing up for free speech, or do we accept the authoritarianism we claim to detest so much? American politicians speak constantly about the indispensable role of the United States in leading the free world against authoritarianism. If that is true, why is the White House so silent in the face of new global threats to free speech? In January, American citizen Gonzalo Lira died in a Ukrainian prison for posting YouTube videos; the State Department didn’t lift a finger to help. Last week, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France for...

We have previously discussed the anti-free speech views of Clinton’s former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, who has tried to sell citizens on the perfectly Orwellian view that more freedom means tyranny when it comes to the freedom of expression. He also demanded that former president Donald Trump be banned from ballots as a “traitor” — all in the name of protecting democracy from itself. Last week, Reich wrote a column declaring Elon Musk “out of control” in his refusal to censor citizens and appeared to call for his arrest.Reich has long been a prominent voice in the anti-free speech movement...

WHEELING, WV (WTRF) – West Virginia Governor Jim Justice is among a group of 24 Republican governors who joined together to write a letter to President Joe Biden to state their united opposition to two proposals currently under negotiation that would grant the World Health Organization (WHO) what they call “unprecedented and unconstitutional” powers in the United States. The governors state that “if adopted, these agreements would seek to elevate the WHO from an advisory body to a global authority in public health. ...they are concerned the most recent draft of the “Pandemic Treaty,” which would allow for the WHO...

She doesn't like the idea that Twitter/X has access to millions of people without "GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT OR REGULATION!"..... QUOTE: "THIS HAS TO STOP!" - Kamala Harris................ 0:28 VIDEO AT LINK..............

We have previously discussed the anti-free speech views of Clinton’s former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, who has tried to sell citizens on the perfectly Orwellian view that more freedom means tyranny when it comes to the freedom of expression. He also demanded that former president Donald Trump be banned from ballots as a “traitor” — all in the name of protecting democracy from itself. Last week, Reich wrote a column declaring Elon Musk “out of control” in his refusal to censor citizens and appeared to call for his arrest. Reich has long been a prominent voice in the anti-free speech...

Consider Mark Zuckerberg’s revelation and its implications for our understanding of the last four years, and what it means for the future. On many subjects important to public life today, vast numbers of people know the truth, and yet the official channels of information sharing are reluctant to admit it. The Fed admits no fault in inflation and neither do most members of Congress. The food companies don’t admit the harm of the mainstream American diet. The pharmaceutical companies are loath to admit any injury. Media companies deny any bias. So on it goes. And yet everyone else does know,...

Jon Passantino, CNN's deputy managing editor for media and misinformation, expressed regret that "Meta-Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg openly admitted cooperating with the Biden Administration to censor content that the President found disagreeable. What had previously been a unanimous agreement that the enemies of democracy were spreading misinformation has been shattered." House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said "Zuckerberg's admission that he now realizes that what the FBI pressured his company to censor was accurate information confirms what FBI whistle blowers have testified to in our committee hearings that the Hunter Biden laptop the FBI seized in 2019 was genuine...

University removes Anglo-Saxon from module titles to 'decolonise the curriculum' By Ed Holt Published: 04:25 EDT, 1 September 2024 | Updated: 04:49 EDT, 1 September 2024 e-mail 125 shares 1k View comments A university has removed the term Anglo-Saxon from module titles in a bid to 'decolonise the curriculum.' The University of Nottingham is removing the expression from a number of courses, including History and English Literature, and replacing it with the more favoured 'Early Medieval English.' Academics have been campaigning to replace Anglo-Saxon with 'Early Medieval English' due to concern the former suggests a distinct, native Englishness.

X, the social-media giant owned by Elon Musk, has officially been banned in Brazil. Last night, X failed to meet a deadline set by a Supreme Court judge to block vast swathes of content and appoint a local legal representative for the company. It has now gone offline to its 22million Brazilian users – roughly one tenth of the national population. The Brazilian elites loathe X for precisely the same reason as the elites across the rest of the democratic world do – they blame it for the spread of so-called disinformation, particularly since it was taken over by Musk...

SAO PAULO (AP) — The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians on Sunday had difficulty and doubts over navigating other social media in its absence.... “I’ve got the feeling that I have no idea what’s happening in the world right now. Bizarre,” entertainment writer and heavy X user Chico Barney wrote on Threads...“Wait a lot of my fan pages are Brazilian!!! Come back hold up!!,” Cardi B said Friday on X... De Moraes...set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using...

@BrendanCarrFCC On Brazilian Justice de Moreas's order shutting down X: The text of his 51-page decision is far more concerning and sweeping than the headlines suggest. de Moreas’s own words make clear that he is attempting to strike a broader blow against free speech and in favor of authoritarian controls. His opinion does not even try to hide it. He comes right out and points to Brexit and the 2016 election of President Trump as examples, in his telling, of the types of extreme “populist” outcomes that he is attempting to avoid by imposing a new censorship regime in Brazil...

Our Op-Ed in The NY Post: Unlike things that happen in Vegas, European social media censorship doesn’t stay in Europe. The detention of Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, by French police is a cautionary tale for how European bureaucratic internet control mechanisms can affect platforms used by millions of Americans. Kemberlee and I write about it in an Op-Ed in The NY Post, Arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France should scare Americans worried about free speech: The famous Las Vegas tourism slogan asserts that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But when it comes to European...

I suspect Prof. Turley is right. Zuckerberg’s motives are less than noble. On August 27, my American Thinker colleague Monica Showalter posted Zuckerberg admits he was muscled by Democrats. She asked: Did a light bulb go on for Mark Zuckerberg about government censorship?Zuckerberg’s admission, a sort of mushy mea culpa, came as he was under pressure from the House Judiciary Committee to produce all manner of documents proving what he admitted in a letter to the Committee, and so much more. The letter may be found here. The Committee notes three primary Zuckerberg admissions: Graphic: X ScreenshotConstitutional law professor and...

Tesla owner Elon Musk issued a stark warning to Americans after his company, X, was banned by radical Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The Brazilian Supreme Court Justice said it banned X because Musk refused to name a legal representative in the country.

In his new book, Donald Trump threatens billionaire and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with prison. Save America, set to be published next week, includes a photograph of Zuckerberg and Trump at the White House. Underneath the photo, Trump wrote that Zuckerberg “would come to the Oval Office to see me” and “bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.” Trump went on to pin some of his election conspiracies on Zuckerberg, and gave him a serious warning. “He told me...

Will we take it lying down? Last summer a Missouri judge ruled in a case brought by the state that the Biden administration had to cease contact with social media companies. This was addressing the charge that the president and/or his staff were engaged in the muzzling of expression on social platforms, regarding the pandemic as well as other topics. (The ruling was recently overturned by the Supreme Court, this June.)The case followed revelations from the Twitter Files, the document release overseen by Elon Musk after taking over that company. In those documents it was established how the federal government...

A decorated scientist with four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes the coronavirus pandemic is being used by the “Deep State” for its own purposes. Shiva Ayyadurai said on Twitter that “fear-mongering” over the outbreak is being used to push an agenda. “As an MIT PhD in Biological Engineering who studies & does research nearly every day on the Immune System, the #coronavirus fear mongering by the Deep State will go down in history as one of the biggest fraud to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, & push MANDATED Medicine!” he said. It is important to note that Ayyadurai...

The CEO of the social media platform Gab revealed that the company refused to comply with a request from German police to provide data on a user who made two posts mocking the weight of a female member of parliament. Gab CEO Andrew Torba shared the request on X that demanded information about the user because he had made two posts that “sexualized the German politician” Ricarda Lang and “denigrated her weight.” The official demand stated, “Throughout the sexualized and denigrated representation of ‘Ricarda Lang,’ the user attacks the honour of the politician and shows his own disrespect.” The request...