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...

Anti-Islam activists and pro-Muslim counter-protesters clashed on Tuesday in Dearborn, Michigan, prompting a heavy police presence. Dearborn, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the country, has recently become a target for activists who accuse it of operating under "Sharia law," according to MLive. The clash began when Jake Lang, who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, arrived on Michigan Avenue and attempted to burn a Quran, the outlet reported. Lang held up a lighter attempting to light the religious text on fire, but counter-protesters knocked it from his hands. Later, Lang slapped the Quran with...

By now, you’ve probably seen the giddy headlines from America’s propaganda media about the U.S. Supreme Court declining to take up a case that sought to overturn so-called “gay marriage.”“BREAKING: The Supreme Court rejects a call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide,” an Associated Press tweet with more than 21,000 likes reads. “Supreme Court rejects challenge to landmark same-sex marriage decision,” a USA Today headline blared. This “breaking news” is in response to an order list published by the Supreme Court on Monday detailing which cases it will and will not be taking up during its ongoing 2025-2026...

Former FBI Director James Comey's claim that he is being "selectively prosecuted by Trump" was verified by current FBI Director Kash Patel. "Every prosecution is selective in a sense that persons who commit crimes are targeted for potential prosecution," Patel explained. "It would be idiotic to randomly prosecute persons who are not committing crimes. Perhaps that's where the Democrats erred by inventing reasons to prosecute President Trump in the run up to the 2024 election." Comey contended that "the leaked data, my emails congratulating the individuals who took credit for the leaks and expressing my expectation that a grateful President...

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...

https://babylonbee.com/news/with-cheney-dead-iraq-finally-admits-they-had-wmds-all-along BAGHDAD — Following the death of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Iraqi government officials finally admitted they actually did have weapons of mass destruction this whole time. "It is true," Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told the press. "We have been having the weapons for all these many years. We were... how you say... just messing with you. Funny, yes?" Cheney and then-President George W. Bush launched an invasion of Iraq in 2003 based in part on intel about the Saddam Hussein regime producing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction in the country. An extensive investigation later...

The First AmendmentCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.What are the limits on free speech in America? What aren’t you allowed to say? And who is allowed to restrict speech? Myth: You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater.Fact: This famous phrase is derived from the 1919 Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States, but the full phrase is that “The most...

Friday afternoon on The Five, Bob Beckel tore into Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for an online ad he released this week that uses the IRS scandal to equate President Obama with Richard Nixon. Beckel called it “one of the cheapest ads I’ve seen” and said to McConnell, “you ought to be ashamed of yourself!” “To politicize this thing before you have the hearings,” Beckel went on, “and to go on the air with that kind ad, that’s a muckraking, disgraceful, disgusting ad, and it’s typical of a guy from the bourbon state.” To protestations from his co-hosts, Beckel said “in...

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,...

NEW YORK — Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway. They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the...

“Religious freedom” was not part of the Old Testament system, because God ruled over Israel directly. Of course, Israel’s theocracy was not intended to be a government model for the rest of the world. Nations which have imposed a self-styled theocracy, such as medieval Spain, have produced totalitarian nightmares. The religious intolerance of the Inquisition was not a product of true theocracy; it was the result of power-hungry, sinful men. In the New Testament, we have a clearer picture of the God-ordained role of government. Romans 13:3-4 delineates the government’s responsibilities, which are, quite simply, to punish evil deeds, reward...

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.