Free Republic

The Democrat-controlled Senate proposed a new bill to censor and police Americans’ First Amendment rights. Brought forth by Democrat Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), the “Digital Platform Commission Act (DPCA)” would flag misinformation and hate speech on the internet. The bill creates a federal agency to do nothing but the mandate and enforce guardrails against people who spread so-called “misinformation,” giving out consequences for information Democrats deem wrong. The bill would violate the American Constitution. “It’s past time for a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to regulating digital platforms that have amassed extraordinary power over our economy, society, and democracy,” Bennet said....

The State Department is steering over $37,000 to a Bolivian nonprofit group to launch a "campaign against disinformation" training program for journalists in the South American country, funding documents show. Thwarting alleged "disinformation" has remained a top priority of the Biden administration, which has come under fire from Republicans for bankrolling left-leaning entities taking aim at conservative websites over their advertising revenue. President Joe Biden's State Department is now in the process of granting taxpayer dollars until April 2024 to Fundacion para el Periodismo, which translates to Foundation for Journalism, so the Bolivian entity can create a "network of 150...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the Physicians Freedom of Speech bill, Senate Bill 1580, on Thursday in addition to three other pieces of legislation the governor’s office says will provide “permanent protections for Floridians from the ‘Biomedical Security State.”‘ SB 1580 allows health care providers and health care payors to have the right to opt out of participation or payment for certain health care services on the basis of conscience-based objections. The bill defines conscience-based objections with respect to “governing documents; any published ethical, moral, or religious guidelines or directives; mission statements; constitutions; articles of incorporation; bylaws; policies; or...

The Biden DHS document fits the administration's broader pattern of targeting pro-lifers.WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life women could be a potential domestic terrorism threat, according to national security planning documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL). One planning document comes from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Counter Terrorism and Threat Prevention and is dated January 29, 2021, just nine days after Joe Biden took office. Another document from August 2020 is included in the public records release and warns of potential violence stemming from protests against COVID-19 lockdown policies and unrest following the death of George Floyd. That...

SUMMARYNewly obtained FOIA documents from America First Legal reveal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to produce training videos that get “bystanders” to intervene against “radicalization” of their peers.​DHS targeted “suburban Moms” with pro-life beliefs and “old high school friends” who believe in “conspiracies” as examples of radicalized citizens in need of bystander intervention.These findings add to the litany of evidence that DHS has shifted its focus from threats of foreign terrorism to monitoring and meddling in domestic US citizen political beliefs.Apparently not content with setting up a Ministry of Truth, an Internet censorship directorate, and even a program for...

The new Foreign Malign Influence Center oversees efforts that span U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic agencies. WITHIN THE FEDERAL government, offices dedicated to fighting foreign disinformation are springing up like daisies, from the Pentagon’s new Influence and Perception Management Office to at least four organizations inside the Department of Homeland Security alone, as well as ones inside the FBI and State Department. To oversee the growing efforts — which arose in response to concerns about the impact of Russian meddling in the 2016 election but have now expanded — the director of national intelligence has created a new...

Leftist students at Syracuse University recently voiced opposition to an event featuring Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector. Ahead of the event hosted by the Syracuse College Republicans in partnership with Young America’s Foundation, students destroyed fliers and posted messages critical of Park and the College Republicans in an online forum. Park, who delivered her speech on Apr. 5, “has criticized concepts like political correctness, trigger warnings and ‘woke culture’ in her career,” according to the student newspaper, The Daily Orange.

The landlady of a pub whose collection of golliwog dolls was confiscated by police has assembled replacements, which she plans to display in defiance of a continuing investigation. Last week four Essex police officers and a trainee seized all the dolls on show in the White Hart Inn in Grays as part of an investigation into an alleged hate crime. The dolls divide opinion in Grays. On Tuesday some pub regulars turned up to show support, but others expressed their fury. The pub’s landlady, Benice Ryley, 62, refuses to accept they are racist. Clutching an armful of the dolls, including...

All students will be required to attend a “mandatory half-day session … on the topic of freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession.”

A group of professors is using taxpayer dollars doled out by the federal government to develop a new misinformation fact-checking tool called “Course Correct.” National Science Foundation funding, awarded through a pair of grants from 2021 and 2022, has amounted to more than $5.7 million for the development of this tool, which, according to the grant abstracts, is intended to aid reporters, public health organizations, election administration officials, and others to address so-called misinformation on topics such as U.S. elections and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

It’s a win. It might only prove temporary, but it’s still a win for now.Last week, the Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky exposed secret blacklists of conservative sites created by the “Global Disinformation Index.” Those blacklists included Hot Air, Townhall, RedState, and Twitchy, and lots of other conservative sites under the ambiguous guise of “disinformation.” No one from GDI or its sponsors ever bothered to contact us to discuss their “assessment,” nor did their reports ever cite any specific data for any of the sites blacklisted, despite a lengthy yet completely data-free discussion of their “methodology.”GDI’s main partner appears to be...

There were a lot of dramatic moments at the House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. Among the most informative was when Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) nailed former head of Twitter Trust and Safety Yoel Roth for Twitter’s contact with the Biden team to suppress tweets. He showed the email contact even as Roth was professing not to remember, yet showing that Roth knew enough to know what random URLs were referencing. One of the other big concerns among many conservatives over the past few years was being “shadow banned” — where you are still being allowed to tweet but your...

Omits Reference To Muslim Terrorism The White House announced Friday afternoon that it is launching an inter-agency task force to counter the sharp growth in violent extremism in America, according to an announcement. As senior members of the Obama administration's national security team meet with technology leaders in Silicon Valley, the White House's National Security Council announced that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security would team up to launch a Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, according to the announcement. The White House background document accompanying the announcement does contain any specific reference to the types of "violent extremism" the...

… He still hasn’t identified the source code, the proverbial ghost in the machine, buried deep in the algorithmic code; however, Twitter owner Elon Musk has finally identified the agency within the U.S. government who spearheaded the creation. The “Global Engagement Center” (GEC) of the State Dept. The GEC mission is described as, “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations,” (link). However, when...

Below is my column in the Hill on the first hearings this week to be held by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It could be one of the most consequential investigations for free speech in decades if it pulls back the curtain on government censorship programs. After the historic release of the Twitter Files by Elon Musk, questions remain on any similar coordination with other social media companies with federal agencies like the FBI to target views considered “disinformation” or “misinformation.” Here is the column: This coming week a new House select subcommittee will hold...

VOLOGDA, Russia -- Shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country’s military into Ukraine in late February, Vladimir Rumyantsev began posting and even broadcasting news from independent media about the invasion from his apartment, highlighting many of the atrocities Russian troops were alleged to have committed. Rumyantsev, who lives in Vologda some 500 kilometers north of Moscow, says he is no admirer of Putin or his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He says he began his posts and broadcasts because Russians needed independent information -- much of which contradicts the official narrative -- “to evaluate the actions of the authorities.”...

'What has happened to me has only furthered the cause of Christ, and for that I rejoice,' said Pastor Tim Stephens ... Canadian pastor who was arrested twice in 2021 for continuing to congregate with his church in Calgary, Alberta ... The Provincial Court of Alberta tossed out charges against Pastor Tim Stephens alleging he violated provincial public health orders regarding physical distancing .... Stephens was imprisoned twice last year for keeping his Fairview Baptist Church open. .... Stephens' acquittal comes weeks after Danielle Smith, Alberta's new premier, promised a plan to pardon COVID offenders in the province. Her administration...

Robert Keith Packer’s sister asked people not to judge him by his cover, a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt. A prosecutor said he was wearing a Nazi SS T-shirt underneath. The revelation of what Packer, a 57-year-old Virginia pipefitter, was wearing on Jan. 6, 2021, came Thursday when a federal judge sentenced him to 75 days for his role in the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. The sweatshirt, which became a symbol of the rioters’ ties to white supremacist movements, was “incredibly offensive,” U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said before handing down the sentence. “It seems to me that he wore...

Tucker Carlson revealed on Monday night that his Fox News show obtained subpoenas that were sent from Biden's Department of Justice to Trump allies and supporters, seeking personal communications. (snip) "The subpoena," Carlson said, "claims to be investigating 'any claim that the Vice President and/or the President of the Senate had the authority to rehect or choose not to count presidential electors.'""Now keep in mind," Carlson said, "that any claim you make, as an American citizen, about electors, any claim you make about American politics period, is protected explicitly under the first amendment.