Free Republic

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans...

Partisan targeting or legitimate antitrust inquiry?The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking documents from the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters to determine whether the self-styled watchdog conspired with other organizations to orchestrate illegal advertiser boycotts of conservative news sites in violation of antitrust laws. In 2024, Elon Musk sued the company for allegedly costing his X platform billions of dollars in lost advertising revenue, leading some observers to criticize the current FTC inquiry as a Musk-inspired alliance.What FTC SeeksThe FTC seeks communications between Media Matters and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) — a cross-industry initiative of the World Federation...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions the Trump administration is implementing against foreign authorities who it says are "complicit" in censoring Americans. "For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights," Rubio wrote on X. "Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority." Foreigners who work to undermine the rights of...

The White House has said it is “monitoring” the case of Lucy Connolly in an escalation of free speech tensions with Sir Keir Starmer. State department officials are examining the treatment of Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, who was jailed for 31 months over a social media post about the Southport attacks. Judges threw out an appeal brought by the 42-year-old last week, meaning she will not be released before August. Campaigners raised her case with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, as part of a wider effort to challenge what they regard as draconian hate speech...

The American public is still learning more about the Biden regime’s sinister nature and how it felt about its political opponents. On Friday, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents that revealed that Americans who opposed the draconian and cruel COVID mandates were declared “Domestic Violent Extremists.” Michael Shellenberger’s Public and Catherine Herridge Reports first obtained the newly declassified records. Former FBI agent Steve Friend explained to Public that the designation created an “articulable purpose” for FBI or other government agents to open an “assessment” of individuals, which is often the first step toward a formal investigation. In other words, COVID...

At one time, most Americans (and virtually all academics) would have agreed with the famous saying, often attributed to Voltaire, “While I disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Over the last several decades, that has dramatically changed. Many academics now seem to embrace the opposite view—something like, “Since I disagree with what you say, I will do everything possible to silence you.” Is that an exaggeration? You won’t think so after reading Nicholas Wolfinger’s new book, Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations. Wolfinger, a sociology professor at the...

CNN’s Collins: Media Didn’t Help Shut Down Skepticism, Critical Thinking During COVID Video Source: CNN Ian Hanchett23 May 202544 1:10 During a portion of an interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that was aired on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” host Kaitlan Collins argued that the media wasn’t involved in shutting down skepticism, critical thinking, and people making their own decisions during the coronavirus pandemic. Towards the end of the interview, Kennedy stated, “I would say be skeptical of authority. My father told me that when I was a young kid, people in authority...

The amazing part of communism is the ability to exert the most ridiculous statements oblivious of the irony or hypocrisy involved. It’s as if they assume that whatever they say will be given equal weight with obvious truths and common sense, when most of their statements are in conflict with both. In recognizing the dogma surrounding this, it isn’t so much that they put exaggerated lies forward as the truth, but that they seem to garner so many listeners. One must stand back and marvel, not at the lies or liars involved, but those who stand ready to accept it,...

When the BOY got off the podium, she assumed her RIGHTFUL spot as CHAMPION! The crowd erupts with applause. THIS is the way. Congrats to Reese Hogan, the REAL champ!!! VIDEO AT LINK......................

A California high school female athlete didn’t let coming in second to a male-born transgender competitor prevent her from standing in the top spot on the podium during placement at a state track and field meet. Reese Hogan, 16, was crowned second place in the triple jump at the CIF Southern Section Finals on Saturday — despite setting a new personal record for herself and the Crean Lutheran High School at 37 feet, 2 inches. Standing in first place, junior trans athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley, who won titles in the girls’ long jump and triple jump, posed with...

Section 1 of the bill creates the "Kelly Loving Act". Section 2 provides that, when making child custody decisions and determining the best interests of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual's gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control. A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child. Section 3 prohibits a Colorado court from applying or giving any force or effect to another state's law that authorizes a...

In 1984, you could be tortured in Room 101 for believing that 2 + 2 = 4. Likewise, in Colorado you can be set upon by law enforcement for calling someone by the name their parents gave them or even for referring to them with factually correct pronouns. Leftist Governor Jared Polis has signed into law House Bill 1312: The law expands the state’s antidiscrimination laws, which apply to settings like workplaces and schools, to include provisions related to using a person’s chosen name and referring to them how they wish. “Antidiscrimination” is the Liberalese euphemism for government-imposed discrimination benefiting...

JOHN KERRY OUTS CIA AGENT Remember all of the outrage and liberal indignation awhile ago when former ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA agent? Evidently it was an unnamed Bush administration official that supplied the name....and the results of that investigation have yet to be made public. Well, it's happened again. Guess who publicly outed a CIA agent this time? Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. That's right...The Poodle's faux pas came yesterday as he was slamming U.N. Ambassador-nominee John Bolton at his confirmation hearings. Here's how it went down. For the majority of the hearings, Bolton...

Just a hair over a week ago (ten days to be exact), an official arm of the German government declared the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party - now polling as Germany's most popular party in the country - a 'right-wing extremist' group. Yeah, right - so big deal, no? I mean, they've been calling them that forever. Actually, it was a big deal. It made the epithet an official label, opening the party and every last one of its members to constant, sanctioned (instead of surreptitious) government surveillance. It was also the first necessary step in the process of...

A retired British police officer was arrested for “thought crime” comments criticising the spread of antisemitism in the country.Former special constable Julian Foulkes, 71, was arrested and received a police caution, a formal warning given by police to someone who admits guilt to a minor offence, over comments he made on social media, The Telegraph reported on Saturday. The arrest took place in November 2023. It came after Foulkes commented on X over the storming of an airport in Dagestan in which an antisemitic mob attempted to hunt down Jewish passengers. In response to a pro-Palestinian activist’s posts threatening to...

Going Entebbe on the hostage-taking dictator, right in front of his patron, Vladimir Putin. For Venezuela's fraudulently elected Nicolas Maduro, in Moscow to pay tribute to his patron Vlad Putin, yesterday was kind of embarrassing for both of them. Way under the radar, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been busy, figuring out a way to make both of them look like weaklings, and with perfect timing, he succeeded: The U.S. welcomes the successful rescue of all hostages held by the Maduro regime at the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas. Following a precise operation, all hostages are now safely on U.S....

A June 2021 memo obtained by Just The News reveals the Biden Regime ordered federal prosecutors to investigate conservatives who spread disinformation, gun owners and active-duty servicemembers. Per John Solomon of Just The News: A newly released memo from June 2021 shows the Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement to target Americans engaged in “concerning non-criminal behavior.” According to declassified documents, Biden officials directed law enforcement to investigate individuals such as active-duty servicemen, gun owners, and people deemed to be spreading “disinformation.” No other information about the June 2021 memo was released as of Tuesday evening. BREAKING: Biden admin ordered...

The UK is on the brink of political chaos, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government arresting farmers, protesters, and even voters accused of "non-compliance" with Labour's increasingly unpopular policies. This crackdown began with Labour's new inheritance tax crackdown on farmland, forcing families to sell off their land just to pay the taxman. Over 300 farmers and protesters have been arrested, many without charge. Videos of tearful mothers, elderly landowners, and young agricultural workers being handcuffed and dragged away are now flooding social media, sparking outrage across the country. King Charles, known for his quiet diplomacy, has reportedly warned the Prime...

Western governments undermine elections, religious freedom, free markets, and free speech. The same Western leaders who speak endlessly about “protecting Democracy” continue to rig elections, outlaw political parties, and prosecute candidates. Germany has declared Alternative for Germany — now the country’s most popular party — an “extremist group” on par with domestic terror organizations. The European Union helped Marxist globalists in Romania invalidate a presidential election and ban the winner from office. France and Brazil have followed the U.S. example of bringing ludicrous criminal charges against popular anti-Establishment politicians, and while President Trump overcame the sham prosecutions targeting him, Marine...

The Republican-led Texas House has officially caved to the radical Left’s war on free speech—and shockingly, it’s being spearheaded by none other than the state’s own scandal-plagued former House Speaker Dade Phelan. On Tuesday, House Bill 366 passed with bipartisan support, making it a potential crime in the state of Texas to share or distribute AI-generated and “altered media”—including political memes—without a government-approved disclaimer on political ads. According to the bill: “A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video...