Free Republic

Author and journalist Michael Shellenberger has said that “U.S. and U.K. military contractors” have used “sophisticated psychological operations and disinformation tactics… against the American people” in sworn testimony in the U.S. House of Representatives. In a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government chaired by Jim Jordan (R-OH) on suppression of free speech by the government, Shellenberger presented the information he received from a whistleblower about the origins of the so-called “Censorship Industrial complex.” Shellenberger, one of the “Twitter Files” authors, coined the phrase “Censorship Industrial Complex” to describe the network of government and private entities...

One of the most accurate aspects about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is the use of the word Nazi to describe the terrorist enemy. No other label or historical parallel could capture the chilling ferocious madness – but not scope – of Palestinian butchery of Israelis. The Nazi vilification epithet has now become conventional Israeli discourse in public and media circles with the vivid revelation – in words and photos – of Palestinian savagery and barbarism by Hamas on October 7. Hamas terrorists, without an ounce of inhibition or remorse, shot youth in cold blood at the music festival...

Author and environmentalist Michael Shellenberger has recently accused military contractors from the US and UK of employing advanced psychological operations and disinformation tactics aimed at manipulating public perception. As citizens become increasingly aware of these allegations, questions arise about the ethical implications of such actions and the impact on democratic principles. The need for a thorough investigation and public discourse on the matter becomes apparent to ensure the responsible use of government funds and to safeguard the integrity of information available to the public.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s cybersecurity agency is burying evidence of its prior efforts to encourage the domestic censorship of US citizens online, silently deleting a dystopian video it published in 2021 instructing children to report their own family members to Facebook for “Covid disinformation.” In August 2022, Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO) published a report that highlighted a particularly troubling cartoon video released by the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In the cartoon, CISA encourages a young woman to report a family member — her “Uncle Steve” — to Facebook, after he makes a post claiming...

The announcement came the same day that X sued Media Matters over an article claiming the company had run ads for major firms next to antisemitic posts. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday announced that he had opened an investigation into media watchdog group Media Matters for America for potential fraud. "The Office of the Attorney General ('OAG') is opening an investigation into Media Matters for potential fraudulent activity," read a press release from the Republican's office. "Under the Texas Business Organizations Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the OAG will vigorously enforce against nonprofits who commit fraudulent...

And so it begins. In fact, it hardly ever stops – another election cycle in well on its way in the US. But what has emerged these last few years, and what continues to crop up the closer the election day gets, is the role of the most influential social platforms/tech companies.Pressure on them is sometimes public, but mostly not, as the Twitter Files have taught us; and it is with this in mind that various announcements about combating “election disinformation” coming from Big Tech should be viewed.Although, one can never discount the possibility that some – say, Microsoft –...

Google spent $26 billion to hide this phone setting from youGoogle goes to great lengths to be your default search engine and keep you from switching. Here’s why you should make your own choice. There’s a setting on your phone and web browser that Google is desperate to keep you from discovering. How desperate? In 2021 alone, Google paid Apple, Samsung and others $26.3 billion to keep it buried. That’s more money each year than McDonald’s makes selling burgers. This setting affects who gets to track your location and watch what you look up online. It affects the usefulness...

An alleged campaign finance violation could ensnare Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 51 former senior intelligence officials who asserted without evidence in 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. America First Legal, a conservative organization run by former Donald Trump White House aide Stephen Miller, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in late October, alleging a "coordinated communication" and an unreported in-kind contribution to the Joe Biden presidential campaign and related entities, in violation of federal law. "[The] evidence suggests that the respondents failed to disclose coordinated expenditures constituting in-kind donations with respect to the...

The Department of Homeland Security partnered with Stanford University and other colleges to create a 'disinformation group' to censor speech leading up to the 2020 election, new emails reveal. The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) was created in July 2020, and consisted of members from the Stanford Internet Observatory, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, Graphika, and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, according to a new report from the House Judiciary Committee and released Monday evening. '[T]he federal government and universities pressured social media companies to censor true information, jokes, and political opinions,' the report said...

Misinformation is a key global threat, but Democrats and Republicans disagree about how to address the problem. In particular, Democrats and Republicans diverge sharply on removing misinformation from social media.Only three weeks after the Biden administration announced the Disinformation Governance Board in April 2022, the effort to develop best practices for countering disinformation was halted because of Republican concerns about its mission. Why do Democrats and Republicans have such different attitudes about content moderation?My colleagues Jennifer Pan and Margaret E. Roberts and I found in a study published in the journal Science Advances that Democrats and Republicans not only disagree...

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., blasted the mainstream media on Thursday for taking the Gaza Health Ministry's account of a hospital explosion at face value. See video

Democratic congressman lashed out at New York Times and Los Angeles Times for pushing false narratives on Palestinian hospital strikeRep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., accused The New York Times of doing something far "worse" than making a mistake, after the outlet quoted Palestinian claims blaming Israel for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week. President Biden said that U.S. intelligence confirmed Israel was not to blame for the attack and backed up Israel's military investigation, which found the strike was caused by Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad. Users on X roasted the paper for...

The European Union (EU) sent formal requests to Meta and TikTok on Thursday for details about their handling of disinformation and illegal content, as the bloc ramps up pressure on social media companies to comply with its new online regulations. Both companies received warning letters from EU Commissioner Thierry Breton last week, following the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas and a resulting deluge of misinformation and graphic content online. Neither company responded to a request for comment Friday. The formal request marks a more aggressive step by the EU, which noted in Thursday’s...

Claimed victims in image were killed by IDF, but they really were victims of Syria’s dictator Ilhan Omar, the Democrat representative in Congress for a suburban district in Minneapolis, long has insisted that “disinformation” be struck from the conversations Americans have about issues. Apparently that would be, however, only “disinformation” with which she disagrees. That’s apparent because she was caught over the weekend spreading “disinformation,” or a lie, about the war that the Hamas terrorists launched against Israel a week ago. In that initial assault, the terrorists broke into Israeli territory and killed an estimated 1,200 individuals immediately, including babies...

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” former Defense Secretary and former CIA Director Leon Panetta responded to questions on whether he regrets signing a letter that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation knowing what he knows now by stating, “I think that disinformation is involved here. I think Russian disinformation is part of what we’re seeing everywhere.” And “I don’t have any regrets about not trusting the Russians.” Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 4:10] “I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about that letter you signed on to from former intelligence...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went back to a favourite playbook of his neo-liberal government, warning of the perils of “Russian disinformation” as his government is facing an international scandal over the invitation of a 98-year-old Ukrainian soldier who fought for Nazi Germany in World War II to a reception for President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Canadian parliament last week. Continuing to refuse to acknowledge any guilt or involvement in the incident, in which he and President Zelensky gave former Waffen SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation, Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottowa on Monday that it was “extremely...

Leftist billionaire George Soros’ ungodly fortune is leaving a dark legacy on American culture and society. Apparently, that legacy included moonlighting as a Minister of Truth by dumping millions of dollars into fighting the leftist catch-all boogeyman of so-called “disinformation” online and across the globe. Soros poured $14,853,765 into at least 50 groups for the express purpose of railing against “disinformation” online and elsewhere between 2017-2021 alone, according to Open Society Foundations records. The Soros-funded groups found in MRC Free Speech America’s tally included radicalized organizations engineered to fight against “disinformation” disseminated by users on Big Tech platforms. One U.S.-based...

The White House, Democrats, and their allied media outlets have been pushing outright disinformation by claiming there is “no evidence” to support an impeachment inquiry into Democrat President Joe Biden, contradicting mounds of evidence uncovered by House Republicans and already in the public sphere. The left’s message since the launch of the impeachment inquiry into Biden seems clear and coordinated: several media outlets, Democrats, and the White House itself have all used phrases such as “without evidence,” “no evidence,” or “no direct evidence” to describe the House GOP effort that Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced earlier this week. But their claims...

A top science journal that receives funding from the federal government was recently forced to admit that well over 2,000 of the research papers it has published contain “exaggerated claims.” As Just The News reports, over 2,600 papers from the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) peer-reviewed journal Science were closely scrutinized by rival research journal Scientometrics. In the subsequent study, it was determined that, from 1997 to 2021, the journal saw a 40% drop in the use of “hedging” words. In scientific research and other forms of academic writing, “hedging” words refers to terms and phrases such...

Reuters "Fact Check" is a Brazen, Obvious Lie