Free Republic

...Across the tech industry...wide swaths of people tasked with protecting the internet's most-populous playgrounds are being shown the exits. The cuts come at a time of increased cyberbullying...and as the spread of misinformation and violent content collides with the exploding use of artificial intelligence....Twitter effectively disbanded its ethical AI team in November and laid off all but one of its members, along with 15% of its trust and safety department, according to reports. In February, Google cut about one-third of a unit that aims to protect society from misinformation, radicalization, toxicity and censorship. Meta reportedly ended the contracts of about...

Senior EU officials were furious on Friday after Twitter owner Elon Musk pulled the platform out of the bloc’s online censorship project. Elon Musk has pulled Twitter out of the EU’s “Code of Practice”, a pro-censorship project aimed at countering so-called “disinformation” online, prompting fury from those in Brussels. It comes after months of mixed messages from the billionaire, who had publicly stated that he wanted to support free speech on the platform while repeatedly insisting that he would support the European Union in its pro-censorship crusade. According to a report by POLITICO, it appears that the Big Tech entrepreneur...

Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration has warned Big Tech companies that they will be held “accountable” unless they enforce “zero-tolerance” policies regarding so-called “hate speech” on their platforms. The White House unveiled a strategy to “fight antisemitism” that involves cracking down on Americans’ online speech. The plan tells Congress to push social media platforms to be held “accountable” for “hate speech.” The 60-page document details four pillars of the strategy. According to the Biden admin, the plan involves raising awareness, improving safety for Jewish communities, reversing what they call the normalization of antisemitism, and countering antisemitic discrimination and hate speech....

The white supremacist host of a podcast that made “vile” racist attacks in an attempt to stir up hatred, divide communities and spread fear has been jailed for two and a half years. James Allchurch, 51, from Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, and his guests used extreme racial slurs and propagated racist ideology while discussing topics such as grooming gangs, immigration, slavery and crime... But the judge, Huw Rees, told Allchurch he was a “perfectly intelligent man” whose lack of work “gave you the time you needed to harbour and promote your warped thinking and express it in highly emotive, racial and...

The Biden administration now is lumping Christians, Republicans, conservatives and Nazis all in one category. A report from the Gateway Pundit explains the scheme follows decisions by the government earlier to infiltrate Catholic parishes to spy on congregations, to dispatch federal agents to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the Capitol to stir up emotions, and to censor Americans' speech. The report explains a new terrorism program within the Department of Homeland Security now is moving into unprecedented territory with its classifications of those group disliked by the Biden administration. "This in unprecedented in American history. Not only is the...

Constable Michael Brisco will be forced to serve the extra hours on rest days and vacations. ... WINDSOR, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian police officer who donated $50 dollars to the Freedom Convoy last year was told by an adjudicator he must work 80 unpaid hours as punishment. Last Thursday, Constable Michael Brisco of the Windsor Police Service in a penalty hearing was given his sentence by retired Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Superintendent Morris Elbers. Elbers said the $50 donation was a “serious” violation and that the hours will be worked on vacation or rest days. “As a police officer,...

The Gateway Pundit previously reported in May that then Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, along with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, filed a lawsuit (Missouri v. Biden) against the Biden Administration, including Biden himself, Anthony Fauci, the Department of Homeland Security, and nearly a dozen federal agencies and Secretaries. Schmitt has moved on to represent Missouri in the US Senate. The suit alleges a massive coordinated effort by the Deep State (permanent administrative state) to work with Big Tech to censor and manipulate Americans – from average citizens to news outlets – on issues including the Hunter Biden Laptop from...

MRC Free Speech America, as part of its new Freedom of Information Act investigations, has learned how the Biden administration is weaponizing a government-funded anti-terrorism grant program in an effort to destroy conservatives, Christians and the Republican Party. Under the Trump administration, the “Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program” (TVTP) was used to prevent terrorism, but it was revamped under the Biden administration and renamed to provide funding for localities to combat “all forms of terrorism and targeted violence.” Instead of focusing on preventing actual violence and terrorism, the program is now being used to target the entire spectrum...

Missouri v. Biden was filed on May 5, 2022. Since it was initially filed, it has taken quite a trip through the court system. The complaint has been amended 3 times, with the most recent Amendment being to transform the case into a class suit – due to the overwhelming evidence of broad harm to the constitutional rights of all Americans. You can view the docket by using this link. The complaint alleged that the US Government was not only threatening and coercing social media companies to censor Americans on social media, but they were also working WITH social media...

RNS) — The National Religious Broadcasters, an association of Christian media outlets, has joined a lawsuit seeking to block a California law that requires social media companies to publish their policies on removing hate speech from their platforms. “In an environment where much religious viewpoint expression is considered ‘controversial’ speech, NRB is acting to stop the weaponization of new laws against Christian communicators,” said Troy Miller, the NRB’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Signing AB 587 last September, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that “California will not stand by as social media is weaponized to...

DETROIT (AP) — Owners of new Ford vehicles will be able to tune in to AM radio in their cars, trucks and SUVs after all. CEO Jim Farley wrote in social media postings Tuesday that the company is reversing a decision to scrub the band after speaking with government policy leaders who are concerned about keeping emergency alerts that often are sounded on AM stations. “We’ve decided to include it on all 2024 Ford and Lincoln vehicles,” Farley wrote on Twitter. “For any owners of Ford’s EVs without AM broadcast capability, we’ll offer a software update” to restore it, Farley...

A professor at a New York City art college has drawn the ire of social media after a video showed her hurling obscenities at pro life students over a display at their school that she eventually destroyed. Shellyne Rodriguez, 46, is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College in the Big Apple. She's also an artist and activist who claims her work 'utilizes text, drawing, painting, collage and sculpture to depict spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation,' according to her bio. A video posted by a pro-life group from...

A handful of “super polluter” publishers are mostly to blame for widespread misinformation about the climate crisis on Facebook, according to new research. Ten publishers, among them the far-right news site Breitbart, once headed by ex-Trump advisor Steve Bannon, are responsible for nearly 70 percent of climate change denial on Facebook, according to a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The “toxic ten” include several conservative U.S. outlets and Russian state media, according to the report.

Facebook has provoked a widespread backlash after the social media platform deleted Christian content and labeled it “hate speech.” The issue was highlighted by journalist Billy Hallowell, a former Blaze writer. Hallowell, a Christian, exercised his religious freedom by posting on Facebook: “Jesus died so you could live.” However, despite his post reflecting one of Christianity’s core beliefs, Hallowell’s post was deleted by Facebook and he was accused of spreading “hate speech” on the Big Tech platform. Hallowell shared about this on Twitter, backed up by screenshots, and a comment stating that the incident was “very, very bizarre.”

A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would create a federal agency tasked with policing the American people’s speech to crack down on “misinformation” and “hate speech.” Democrat Senator Michael Bennett (Colo.) introduced the Digital Platform Commission Act (DPCA) last week which would form a de facto “Ministry of Truth” called the Federal Digital Platform Commission. Bennett claimed his proposed bill would “create an expert federal body empowered to provide comprehensive, sector-specific regulation of digital platforms to protect consumers, promote competition, and defend the public interest.” The bill says the agency would have five commissioners appointed by Joe...

FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U..S. Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a heavily blacked-out court order released Friday. FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that...

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....

Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country. Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services...

The First Amendment is the essential foundation for our nation’s greatness, guaranteeing Americans our precious freedoms that are denied in so many countries. Thus, it is disturbing to behold a bi-partisan group of politicians advocating a big government attempt to restrict the First Amendment in a disastrous piece of legislation called the RESTRICT ACT.

Using cheesy training videos to teach Americans to see their neighbors as criminals is equal parts lazy, stupid, and sinister. You meet up with your friend from college. While you went on to make a career for yourself in HR, she married right after graduation and started her family. You are disturbed by how she has changed over the last 10 years. She has doubts about the 2020 presidential election and Covid vaccines, speaks highly of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, and refuses to drink Bud Light. She has also become quite religious, attending potlucks and Bible studies, and laments...