Free Republic

The EU is working at full speed to complete its online surveillance-and-informant network. By the end of the year, all EU member states are required to present so-called “Trusted Flaggers” -- institutions tasked with identifying “problematic” content -- to Brussels for accreditation. Politicians from Germany’s Christian Democratic Union appear especially eager. Hendrik Wüst, CDU politician and Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, is a child of the current zeitgeist. As the leader of Germany’s most populous state, he views it as his mission not merely to preach the dominant ideology of the CO2-neutral society, but to enforce it rigorously. Together with...

The US State Department will focus on “natural rights” like freedom of speech in its next human rights report, a senior State Department official said Thursday, as the Trump administration targets traditional European allies for alleged freedom of speech restrictions. The move further institutionalizes changes seen in the latest report released in August, which covered the 2024 calendar year. That report alleged “significant human rights issues” in allied countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany over “serious restrictions on freedom of expression.” The State Department instructed all embassies and consulates in a diplomatic cable Thursday to begin preparing the...

For the first time in France, a private television channel, CNews, has been convicted of ‘climate misinformation’. The debate on climate change is no longer a matter of conflicting arguments or scientific controversy; it is now an official doctrine that cannot be questioned or even discussed without breaking the law. Meanwhile, on public service television, falsehoods and inaccuracies on the same subject are repeated without any contradiction. This is a first in France: the news channel CNews, owned by conservative Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, has just been ordered by the council of state to pay a fine of €20,000 for...

The West is systematically destroying freedom of speech in a startlingly rapid and blunt manner. Increasingly, the authorities are unashamed of their actions in doing so. The revolution, as Stephen Coughlin has predicted, is going from covert to Overt. This first story is about a theatre in the UK cancelling a documentary about the destruction of freedom of speech in the UK. No irony seems to be felt by the theatre. SPIKE: Our free-speech documentary has been cancelled You would think that banning a documentary about free speech would be a bad look for a cultural institution. But that’s precisely...

Germany, France, Canada, and Belgium are among 12 nations that signed on to the “Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change,” documenting the so-called “threats” that free speech and the free press pose to what U.S. President Donald Trump refers to as the climate “con job.”Signed at the United Nations’ COP30, the UN’s annual climate confab, the declaration marks the first time that “information integrity” has been on the docket for COP’s Action Agenda.The rise of independent media, social media, and the internet has created a source of non-establishment news that has elevated legitimate criticism of the so-called man-made climate-change...

Digital censorship has been underway in the E.U. for nearly a decade, but last week Brussels took it to a new level. The European Commission unveiled the latest weapon in its arsenal — the European Democracy Shield and accompanying E.U. Strategy for Civil Society — billed as a plan to “protect democracy,” a descriptor that usually means anything but that. The Shield is justified largely as a response to Russia’s information operations and, increasingly, to China’s Gray-Zone warfare. One of its premises is that member-states cannot handle the threats on their own. E.U. leaders say the initiative is designed to...

Ten people accused of sexist cyber-bullying of the French president's wife, Brigitte Macron, are due to go on trial this week in Paris. The defendants are accused of spreading unsubstantiated claims over her gender and sexuality, as well as making "malicious remarks" about the 24-year age gap between Brigitte and her husband, Emmanuel Macron. If found guilty, the defendants face up to two years' imprisonment. Among the ten people due to appear in the dock on Monday and Tuesday are an elected official, a gallery owner and a teacher, according to French media. Two of them - self-styled independent journalist...

A divided federal appeals court has sided with Michigan school administrators who barred students from wearing shirts with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon!”, which gained traction as a coded message of opposition to then-President Joe Biden. The 2-1 decision this week by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit provides some important guidance to educators on when they can prohibit speech promoting a “vulgar message” in schools, even if doesn’t contain actual expletives or is political in nature. “The Constitution doesn’t hamstring school administrators when they are trying to limit profanity and vulgarity in the...

The Russian leader noted that the reaction of Western elites on a new interpretation of events was primitive and straightforwardMOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Western elites spent years teaching Russia about the importance of freedom of speech and competition, and now they are trying to ban and block all of that, President Vladimir Putin said in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of RT. "For years, they [Western elites] taught us how to live, how the media should work, how to understand democracy and what democracy is. What true freedom of speech is. They convinced us of the importance of competition,...

For generations, Americans believed the First Amendment was untouchable — the cornerstone of our Republic. But today, freedom is under attack. Behind closed doors, government agencies, Big Tech, universities, and NGOs built a powerful system to control what citizens can say, hear, and believe. This is not speculation. It is a documented reality. “God Complex: The Rise of America’s Censorship Machine” is a Big Picture Originals documentary that reveals how this system came to be, how it operates, and why every American who values freedom must pay attention. Because when speech is silenced, the truth disappears — and with it,...

The sentencing of the protest’s organizers only confirms that Canadians with the wrong political views will not receive equal treatment before the lawIn a disgraceful conclusion to a disgraceful trial, Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber have been sentenced to 12 months of house arrest and 6 months of curfew (with credit for the 49 days Lich has already spent in jail) – plus 100 hours of community service. An ironic addendum. For in the packed courtroom on October 7, there was likely not one person who has served the community with greater generosity than the two defendants....

A petition to disband the Rutgers University Turning Point USA chapter has been launched for promoting "hate speech" and creating a "toxic environment." The petition launched this week, and by Wednesday, already has 1,679 signatures.

SB-771 threatens to turn digital platforms into ideological enforcers, punishing those who hold traditional, faith-based viewpoints. California lawmakers are once again leading the charge — not toward progress, but toward repression. Their latest move, Senate Bill 771 (SB-771), is being packaged as a bold stand against “hate” on social media. In reality, it’s a direct assault on the free expression and constitutionally protected speech of ministries, minority groups, and faith-based organizations. The bill would force Big Tech to remove content that could be interpreted as “harassment” or “intimidation” based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and more — or face...

A controversial bill awaiting California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature would slap steep new penalties on social media platforms that fail to censor content deemed in violation of the state’s civil rights laws. SB 771, which passed both chambers of the state legislature and was sent to Newsom’s desk on Monday, imposes fines of up to $1,000,000 on social media platforms that fail to remove content that violates the state’s civil rights laws. Critics warn the measure will lead to sweeping censorship of lawful speech. Lawmakers defended SB 771 by citing “rising incidents of hate-motivated harm,” including “hate crimes involving...

Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox REPORT: As America grieved Charlie Kirk’s death, California rammed through one of the harshest censorship bills in U.S. history. SB 771 gives the state sweeping power to police online speech—with penalties so crushing they could bankrupt ordinary citizens. Lawmakers approved $500,000 fines for “hateful” posts, and $1 million for willful violations. In under a week, the bill shot through both chambers and now sits on Gavin Newsom’s desk. If signed, politicians—not the people—will decide which words are allowed, and which could destroy your life. This isn’t just a California problem. The same playbook is already silencing...

Google on Tuesday promised to restore YouTube accounts that have been banned for political speech, admitting that the Biden administration pressured it to censor Americans that did not violate the company’s terms of service, in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). “Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” a lawyer representing Google wrote to Jordan. The letter would likely affect pro-Trump political commentators...

FIRST ON FOX: Google vowed on Tuesday to offer YouTube accounts that were permanently banned for political speech the ability to be reinstated, and the big tech giant admitted that it once faced pressure from the Biden administration to remove content about COVID-19. Google detailed its remarkable shift in a document, first obtained by Fox News Digital, that a lawyer for the company provided to the House Judiciary Committee. The new policy from Google, also known by its parent company Alphabet, could affect both average users and well-known figures like FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian...

Although the winter 2022 truckers’ protest against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s punitive vaccine mandates shook Canada down to its mukluks, it no longer dominates the headlines. Still, it remains in public consciousness. Prominent protest members were recently convicted or are still on trial. Its implications are still with us, and its long-term effects may well be seismic. The Freedom Convoy traversed the country from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to the nation’s capital in Ottawa to protest the biggest experiment ever in authoritarian rule over Canadians—COVID lockdowns and, particularly, the vaccines. The truckers and their fellow convoy travelers demanded the attention...

The Harris-Biden administration’s campaign to censor COVID-related content on Facebook during the height of the pandemic – as revealed by a remorseful Mark Zuckerberg this week – was so aggressive that it even cracked down on lighthearted memes, satirical posts and regular old jokes. On Monday, Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that “senior Biden administration officials, including the White House, “repeatedly pressured” Facebook parent Meta to “censor” pandemic-related content in 2021, as well as The Post’s exclusive reporting on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop. The takedown requests included posts that Zuckerberg considered...

Once a left-wing fetish, the heckler’s veto has gained conservative adherents. It's a given that if one party to a disagreement keeps breaking the rules in order to harm opponents, the other participants will eventually sink to the challenge and adopt—or escalate—out-of-bounds tactics themselves. That's bad enough in any conflict, but it can be disastrous for a free and open society if the rules being broken by all parties are fundamental free speech norms. For years, we've seen left-leaning students and faculty on college campuses shout down and sometimes assault speakers with whom they disagree. Now right-leaning students have joined...