Free Republic

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the Global Engagement Center as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the “censorship-industrial complex.”“Today, it is my pleasure to announce the State Department is taking a crucial step toward keeping the president’s promise to liberate American speech by abolishing forever the body formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist, titled, “Rubio: To Protect Free Speech, The Censorship Industrial Complex Must Be Dismantled.”Rubio wrote that, in 2016, the Obama administration changed the GEC’s focus on combatting international terrorism cover...

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...

After the Biden administration spent four years “weaponizing” her division, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon says that she needs more “energized attorneys” to help her spearhead new initiatives to protect rights that have been trampled on in the past years. The priorities pursued in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division by her predecessor Kristen Clarke — prosecuting pro-life activists, suing states over election integrity efforts and targeting police departments — are going to change, Dhillon told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a Friday interview. Under her leadership, Dhillon said the Civil Rights Division will...

An Idaho woman filed a notice of tort claim Monday with the Kootenai County clerk saying county officials and others violated her constitutional rights when she was removed from a town hall meeting in February. “Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech,” Teresa Borrenpohl said in a press release. The tort claim says Borrenpohl is seeking damages of at least $5 million. Wendy Olson, an attorney for Borrenpohl, said...

President Donald Trump on Monday said CNN refuses to report accurately on the decrease in migrants crossing the southern border because "they hate our country." During a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, Trump talked about military and law enforcement recruitment that has surged. "Actually, what you're doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped, what, 95%? It's incredible," Bukele said to Trump. "As of this morning, 99%, 99.1% to be exact," Trump replied. "Why are those numbers not in the media?" Bukele asked. "Well, they get out, but the fake news, you know,...

Press access is not freedom, it's privilege. For the umpteenth time, AP executive editor Julie Pace claims that it’s fighting for the freedom of speech of all Americans by demanding exclusive cartel access to the White House. If Pace were at all literate, she would at least be arguing about Freedom of the Press, but neither one applies. Now if Trump had dispatched the FBI to take smash up the presses or ban the AP from operating for refusing to use the term Gulf of America, that would be a textbook First Amendment violation. But that’s not happening. Instead the...

SURPRISE, Ariz. — A viral video has surfaced showing a woman being forcibly thrown to the ground by a Surprise police officer after she was seen waving a Trump flag in traffic near an anti-Trump protest. The incident, which occurred on Monday afternoon near Bell Road and Civic Center Plaza, has sparked controversy, with the woman involved speaking out about what she describes as excessive use of force. The woman, Camellia Gocan, explained that she was driving around the Surprise area when she saw a group of anti-Trump protesters at the intersection. In response, she decided to wave a pro-Trump...

Snip One problem that has arisen is that in a social media-based world one may not actually be present to be harmed or incited to participate in violent acts. If speech consumers are not in fact in a public space to face an impending menace or to be provoked to commit violence immediately, how should those communications be interpreted? A further complication surrounds the question of whether AI can distinguish incitement of immediate, intended malice so it flags only the most serious threats? Can its programming perceive or discern context if someone is making an allowed political statement if using...

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul ripped the Supreme Court on Friday after it unanimously upheld a federal law requiring TikTok's parent company to sell its United States operations by January 19 or face a nationwide ban. Paul said he was disappointed in the ruling, adding, "I do believe that banning a social media app like TikTok is a violation of the First Amendment." Congress passed the law with broad bipartisan support last year after lawmakers argued that TikTok's ties to China represented a significant national security risk. The Supreme Court's nine justices sided with Congress on Friday, saying in an unsigned...

The State Department laid to rest the alleged "censorship nerve center" of the federal government last week after Congress refused to reauthorize the interagency Global Engagement Center, known for teaching youth to distrust populism and allegedly squelching American small businesses online. While it may have a peaceful afterlife – State plans to "realign" GEC staff with other entities that handle purported "foreign information manipulation and interference activities" – GEC also faces an unquenchable fire and undying worm on multiple fronts. The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Monday against State, with nine exhibits, because it...

Every Legal Scholar and Pundit, including the highly respected, and sadly recently passed, David Rivkin, as well as Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, have unequivocally stated that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought. This illegitimate political attack is nothing but a Rigged Charade. “Acting” Justice Merchan, who is a radical partisan, just issued another order that is knowingly unlawful, goes against...

Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes Bankrupt COMMENTARY By Gabe KaminskyDecember 30, 2024 Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes BankruptAP The Global Engagement Center, an office housed within the State Department and aiming to thwart disinformation and misinformation, has been forced by Congress to close up shop. It’s no mystery why; the taxpayer-backed GEC violated its mandate to work only overseas and devolved into a partisan enabler of speech suppression in the United States. Here’s how. Founded in 2016 and technically the product of an Obama-era executive order on counterterrorism, the GEC lapsed in December and lost congressional funding. Over the last two years,...

Effective December 26, Elon Musk changed the Twitter algorithm to diminish those voices who would openly confront his network of supporters within Silicon Valley and beyond. If large follower Twitter accounts, like those of Musk himself, David Sacks, Vivek Ramaswamy and Musks’ promoted network of influencers begin blocking accounts on the platform, then the voices of those accounts get purposefully diminished by the algorithm.Much like having a VIP section that can remove people from the audience, Musk is pushing opposing viewpoints into the background of the public square.[SOURCE]The timing of this is not accidental. The allies of Musk have been...

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean claimed Thursday on MSNBC’s “All In” that once in office, President Donald Trump will attack free speech, causing the country to be “done for as we know it.” Host Ari Melber said, “I am curious what you see here in the political side of this. These are political efforts to change how people act or change coverage or have some impact. ABC, going to make its own decisions but it was widely covered that the case was not an obvious loss by any means and their statement, I am referring to what ABC...

Relevant section starts at 21:40 into the youtube video.The 1964 New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan was handed down as a unanimous decision of the (to conservatives, notorious) Warren Court. It was not only unanimous, but included enthusiastic concurrences by justices who wanted to go even further.In is the Sullivan decision which severely inhibits the filing of libel suits by “public figures” - emphatically including politicians. The theory of the decision basically was that politicians are big boys who can handle themselves in propaganda contests because they have political parties behind them. Scalia’s rebuttal is that “the” freedom of speech,...

A longtime assistant manager at Kay Jewelers was fired after she talked to a co-worker about God, according to a federal lawsuit. Mika Cohen, alleges that she lost her job after a colleague made inquiries about her Christian faith and how it squared with Pride Month. The conversation happened in a back work area at a Kay Jewelers in Fairlawn, Ohio. The coworker continuously pressed Cohen for her personal opinions about Pride Month. Finally, she explained that she is a Christian and shared her sincerely held beliefs on God’s definition of marriage and sexuality. A few weeks later Kay Jewelers...

I had posted a link to this video in the comments of the thread on Donald Trump Jr's statements regarding the possibility of changing the access to the WH Press room. Someone suggested I post it in its own thread since many are not aware of the history of the association and how they control access to the White House. So, here is a short video by Chanel Rion that may provide info you had not previously been aware of in regards to the: WHCA

A federal judge said Monday he may hold an evidentiary hearing next month to help determine whether to approve the sale of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' media company to satirical publication The Onion. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston clarified the sale, which comes after a Nov. 13 auction, remains in limbo until such a hearing, when interested parties can make their case and he can decide which of Jones' assets, if any, can be sold. A date was not immediately set. He also declined to immediately rule on Jones' request for a temporary restraining order to disqualify the Onion's...

Colorado officials have agreed to pay over $1.5 million to cover attorney fees for graphic designer Lorie Smith, who successfully challenged the state’s antidiscrimination law at the Supreme Court. The settlement, announced Tuesday, comes months after the high court ruled in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis that Colorado violated Smith’s First Amendment rights by attempting to compel her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples against her religious beliefs. Earlier this year, a federal district court issued a final judgment requiring state officials to cease efforts to compel Smith’s speech, a resolution that brought an end to years of legal...

Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats claim they are the party of freedom. In Harris’ interview on Club Shay Shay on Monday, she argued that people need to vote for her to preserve the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments, that Trump “wants to terminate the Constitution.” Yet, on the First Amendment, Harris previously called for government “oversight or regulation” of social media to stop what she calls misinformation. In 2022, her vice-presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz, claimed: “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.” On gun ownership, Harris went so far as claiming: “I am in...