Free Republic

The Authentication LayerWhy Digital ID Is the Hill to Die OnA friend and I got into it recently. He’s smart, freedom-minded, and totally gets the danger of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Expiring money, programmable control, carbon budgets - he sees most of the expanding tyranny clearly. And yet he dismisses Digital ID as a distraction. When I try to make the case that digital ID is the gateway to the gulag in the metaverse, he demands I name ONE thing Digital ID gives the government that they can’t already do.My answer: it enables CBDC.Of course, governments have already encroached...

The Bulls are cutting bait with Jaden Ivey, waiving the guard following comments on social media livestreams against the LGBTQ community and the Catholic church. The team announced he was waived “due to conduct detrimental to the team” in a statement. Growing concerns about Ivey date back to last month and his comments on a livestream on his personal Instagram account on Monday about the LGBTQ community were the last straw for the Bulls, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Ivey has been posting several lengthy videos on his social media in recent weeks, with the topic of the NBA’s...

The Chicago Bulls waived shooting guard Jaden Ivey “due to conduct detrimental to the team,” the team announced in a statement on Monday. Ivey had increasingly been posting on social media about his religious beliefs and recently made anti-LGBTQ comments. The Bulls’ decision reportedly came after he criticized the NBA for celebrating Pride Month, which he called “unrighteousness.”

The government censorship machine took a huge hit Tuesday in a historic win for First Amendment rights. What is being billed as an “unprecedented” agreement will bar the three government agencies central to killing speech the Biden administration didn’t like from pressuring social media platforms from doing so in the future. “This case began with a suspicion, that blossomed into fact, that led to Congressional hearings and an Executive Order that government censorship of Americans’ social media posts should end,” said John Vecchione, Senior Litigation Counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), the nonprofit civil rights group that has...

An athlete’s silent act of dissent can turn both her and her family into targets of intimidation under the rule of Iran’s radical Islamist regime. After refusing to sing the Islamic Republic’s anthem before a match in Australia, seven members of Iran’s women’s national soccer team sought asylum there, making a desperate choice no athlete should ever face. After the regime issued threats against the seven and jailed their families, five later withdrew their claims and left. And yet from the global capital of women’s soccer, there has been no public solidarity.

Spain will launch a tool to measure hate speech on digital ‌platforms as part of a broader strategy ‌to increase oversight of social media companies, Prime Minister Pedro ​Sanchez said on Wednesday. The country announced a wider plan last month to regulate social media, including a ban on its use for younger teenagers and ‌measures to hold ⁠platform executives accountable for illegal or hateful content hosted on their services. The new ⁠tool, called HODIO — an acronym in Spanish for Footprint of Hatred and Polarisation — will allow the ​government to ​systematically track the presence, ​amplification and impact of ‌hate...

It is illegal to say that there are only two sexes, and that indoctrinating children to believe otherwise is dangerous. How illegal? Well, at least in British Columbia, it can bankrupt you. Canadian tribunal fines man $750,000 for believing there are only two genders https://t.co/W5DJVp0zIi— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) February 20, 2026The same totalitarian impulse that gets Europeans arrested and American companies fined hundreds of millions or billions of dollars exists in Canada, but the legal structures are different, so the censorious impulse is expressed differently. No doubt you are aware of the sensational cases of Jordan Peterson and Mark...

Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim’s first priority has been a bill to define ‘Islamophobia’. The most notable thing about his bill SB 624 ‘Assault and battery; definition of “Islamophobia”, penalty’ is how completely unnecessary it is. Virginia already has multiple layers of hate crimes enhancements for assaults motivated by race, ethnicity and religion. During Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term, the legislature has already passed SB 7 (Senate Bill 7) and its counterpart enhancing the assault charge for anyone who “intentionally selects the person against whom a simple assault is committed because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation,...

BRASÍLIA (9 February 2026) — A Brazilian woman, Isadora Borges, is facing criminal prosecution after posting comments on social media expressing her views on gender ideology, exposing her to a possible prison sentence of four to ten years. In November 2020, Isadora Borges made two posts on X (then Twitter), peacefully expressing her views against gender ideology. One comment stated that “transgender” women “were obviously born male.” Another stated: “A person who identifies as transgender retains their birth DNA. No surgery, synthetic hormone, or clothing change will change this fact…” Her comments quickly gained attention online, and prompted Erika Hilton,...

A media ratings website is suing the Federal Trade Commission for investigating alleged efforts to blacklist conservative news outlets, in a clash that is effectively dueling accusations of censorship. NewsGuard Technologies sued the FTC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, alleging the Trump administration was trying to censor it, “simply out of disagreement with NewsGuard’s First Amendment-protected journalistic judgments about the reliability of news sources.” “Under the guise of a supposed antitrust investigation, the FTC has demanded all documents (memos, emails, texts, reporters’ notes, subscriber lists, analyses, financial reports, and more) that NewsGuard has...

The House Judiciary Committee’s recent findings present a simple but unsettling conclusion. American speech is being curtailed in the United States, not because Congress has changed the First Amendment, but because foreign governments have learned how to route around it. Europe’s Digital Services Act, presented as a domestic regulatory framework, has in practice become a lever for global speech control. Its effects now reach deep into the American public square. To see how this happens, begin with a basic fact about the modern internet. Major platforms operate with global content moderation rules. They do so not out of ideology but...

Senator Saddam claims that Virginia is in the middle of an ‘Islamophobia’ crisis. The second Muslim selected for the state senate, after Ghazala Hashmi, who is now acting as Virginia’s Lt. Governor, the Bangladeshi immigrant, from a country where non-Muslims are being murdered in the streets, has made complaining about ‘Islamophobia’ in his new home his signature issue. Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim’s first priority has been a bill to define ‘Islamophobia’. The most notable thing about his bill SB 624 ‘Assault and battery; definition of “Islamophobia”, penalty’ is how completely unnecessary it is. Virginia already has multiple layers of hate...

Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms. Announced just yesterday, these measures could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of “protection.” Here’s why they’re a red flag for free speech and privacy: 1. Ban on social media for under-16s with mandatory age verification: This isn’t just about kids—it requires platforms to use strict checks, like needing IDs or biometrics. ⚠️ Danger: It sets a precedent for tracking EVERY user’s identity, eroding anonymity and opening doors to mass data collection. What starts with minors could expand to all, stifling open discourse. 2....

A set of internal documents published by the Republican members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee (Judiciary GOP) has sent shockwaves through Brussels. Released under the title The EU Censorship Files, Part II, the investigation presents documentary evidence of a sustained strategy by the European Commission to influence public debate on social media and digital platforms, pressuring major tech companies to censor lawful content, alter their internal rules, and restrict certain political viewpoints. https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/2018683758006665352 The revelations go far beyond an abstract debate over content moderation. According to the material made public, the Commission has directly or indirectly intervened in at...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced sweeping plans at the World Government Summit in Dubai to hold social media executives criminally liable and curb platform algorithms, prompting a sharp and profane response from X owner Elon Musk. Sánchez laid out five measures in a speech, with implementation set to begin next week. "Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain," Musk wrote on X, using an explicit insult and a poop emoji. Sánchez framed the proposals by describing social media as a lawless digital ecosystem, arguing that platforms have become a "failed state" where disinformation, hate...

BRITISH POLICE ARREST WRONG MAN - THIS IS INSANE Conservative holds a debate on a University campus on Deportations Leftist student ATTACKS HIM Uni staff help THE ATTACKER Police say Conservative SHOULD NOT HAVE DEBATED Police then ARREST Conservative man Absolute Disgrace

Meet ‘Amelia’: the AI-generated British schoolgirl who is a far-right social media star The avatar, created to deter young people from extremism, has been subverted and is breaking out of niche online silos Ben Quinn Political correspondent Sun 25 Jan 2026 04.00 EST Share In certain corners of the internet, on niche news feeds and algorithms, an AI-generated British schoolgirl has emerged as something of a phenomenon. Her name is Amelia, a purple-haired “goth girl” who proudly carries a mini union flag and appears to have a penchant for racism. If you are unfamiliar with Amelia, the chances are you...

Imagine the internet suddenly stops working. Payment systems in your local food store go down. Healthcare systems in the regional hospital flatline. Your work software tools, and all the information they contain, disappear. You reach out for information but struggle to communicate with family and friends, or to get the latest updates on what is happening, as social media platforms are all down. Just as someone can pull the plug on your computer, it’s possible to shut down the system it connects to. This isn’t an outlandish scenario. Technical failures, cyber-attacks and natural disasters can all bring down key parts...

Bill Whittle is my favorite Conservative voice, and in this linked video he discusses a new trend that is apparently spreading over the Internet, and it highlights the efforts on the European governments (in this case, British) attempts to crack down on Internet speech.The British government has released a series of animated "instructional" interactive cartoons online which are intended to indoctrinate people in what Orwell called Goodthink in his seminal work, 1984 which is what the government feels is the "right" way to think about certain issues. (I believe the videos are called Pathways because the user can select different...

European users, institutions, and tech firms face a new social media option built around mandatory identity checks and EU regulation. European backers have formally unveiled W, a new social media platform designed to operate entirely under European law and infrastructure, positioning itself as a verified alternative to X. The service was introduced publicly in Davos, Switzerland, during events surrounding the annual World Economic Forum, and is intended for rollout across the European Union and other markets. All users will be required to complete identity and photo verification before participating. The launch is significant as Europe tightens enforcement of digital platform...