Free Republic

Partisan targeting or legitimate antitrust inquiry?The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking documents from the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters to determine whether the self-styled watchdog conspired with other organizations to orchestrate illegal advertiser boycotts of conservative news sites in violation of antitrust laws. In 2024, Elon Musk sued the company for allegedly costing his X platform billions of dollars in lost advertising revenue, leading some observers to criticize the current FTC inquiry as a Musk-inspired alliance.What FTC SeeksThe FTC seeks communications between Media Matters and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) — a cross-industry initiative of the World Federation...

MAGA showed up BIG for FREE SPEECH at the Lakeland Farmers Market after they tried to ban me last week! Featuring the great ‪@AdamFrancisco‬!

Since taking office, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken a series of actions to push back against growing foreign government demands to censor American citizens and American technology companies like Google, Meta, and X. In April, Rubio shut down the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which had funded censorship advocacy by the Global Disinformation Index, a UK-based NGO with ties to the Intelligence Community. Last week, Rubio said the administration was considering sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for his sweeping censorship edicts. And on Monday, senior State Department officials...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions the Trump administration is implementing against foreign authorities who it says are "complicit" in censoring Americans. "For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights," Rubio wrote on X. "Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority." Foreigners who work to undermine the rights of...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal from a Massachusetts middle school student who was forced to remove a T-shirt that claimed “there are only two genders.” Two conservative justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — dissented from the decision to not hear the case. So long as the appeals court’s decision remains on the books, Alito wrote, “thousands of students will attend school without the full panoply of First Amendment rights. That alone is worth this court’s attention.” The student, Liam Morrison, wore the shirt to Nichols Middle School in Middleborough, Massachusetts, in 2023 to...

The White House has said it is “monitoring” the case of Lucy Connolly in an escalation of free speech tensions with Sir Keir Starmer. State department officials are examining the treatment of Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, who was jailed for 31 months over a social media post about the Southport attacks. Judges threw out an appeal brought by the 42-year-old last week, meaning she will not be released before August. Campaigners raised her case with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, as part of a wider effort to challenge what they regard as draconian hate speech...

Free speech and Grooming Gang fighter, Tommy Robinson, has been released from prison. Now the State has charged him with 'causing fear' of two 'journalists' from the Daily Mail, that doxed him and his family while on vacation, for merely naming who doxed him.

The American public is still learning more about the Biden regime’s sinister nature and how it felt about its political opponents. On Friday, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents that revealed that Americans who opposed the draconian and cruel COVID mandates were declared “Domestic Violent Extremists.” Michael Shellenberger’s Public and Catherine Herridge Reports first obtained the newly declassified records. Former FBI agent Steve Friend explained to Public that the designation created an “articulable purpose” for FBI or other government agents to open an “assessment” of individuals, which is often the first step toward a formal investigation. In other words, COVID...

At one time, most Americans (and virtually all academics) would have agreed with the famous saying, often attributed to Voltaire, “While I disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Over the last several decades, that has dramatically changed. Many academics now seem to embrace the opposite view—something like, “Since I disagree with what you say, I will do everything possible to silence you.” Is that an exaggeration? You won’t think so after reading Nicholas Wolfinger’s new book, Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations. Wolfinger, a sociology professor at the...

CNN’s Collins: Media Didn’t Help Shut Down Skepticism, Critical Thinking During COVID Video Source: CNN Ian Hanchett23 May 202544 1:10 During a portion of an interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that was aired on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” host Kaitlan Collins argued that the media wasn’t involved in shutting down skepticism, critical thinking, and people making their own decisions during the coronavirus pandemic. Towards the end of the interview, Kennedy stated, “I would say be skeptical of authority. My father told me that when I was a young kid, people in authority...

On Thursday afternoon, Judge Irving of the DC Superior Court ordered vexatious litigant Michael E. Mann to pay Mark's co-defendants Competitive Enterprise Institute and Rand Simberg $477,350.80 in attorney's fees - within thirty days. This is related to counts that were dismissed on Anti-SLAPP grounds half-way through the case - one was against CEI for republishing a National Review editorial critical of Mann deemed protected speech and the other against CEI and Rand for "intentional infliction of emotional distress". According to anti-slapp.org: SLAPPs are Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. These damaging suits chill free speech and healthy debate by targeting...

The First Amendment protects most forms of speech. But did you know that there are certain things even the Constitution does not allow? It's true. Here are 11 statements that can get you in trouble with the law: "I disagree with the government." - The First Amendment was not designed to protect speech criticizing our omnipotent rulers. "The government lied to us." - No, they didn't, and you are going to jail. "I kind of enjoy the Disney Star Wars films." - This can actually get you deported, believe it or not. "Baseball is boring." - The Constitution does...

British political prisoner Tommy Robinson is set to be released from prison within the coming week after the High Court reduced his 18-month sentence for contempt of court by four months. Robinson was originally jailed last October for violating a 2021 injunction that prohibited him from repeating allegations against Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian refugee who had previously won a libel case against him. At the time of sentencing, Justice Johnson explained that the prison term included a 14-month “punitive” portion and a four-month “coercive” portion. This week, Robinson appealed to the High Court in an effort to “purge” the coercive...

Defending Education is taking parental rights to court, suing the state of Colorado over its outrageous and arguably unconstitutional new groomer law. You might remember the recently passed Colorado legislation to fund castration of “trans” kids with taxpayer dollars and in spite of parents' wishes, to mandate pro-trans policies in schools, to criminalize “deadnaming,” and to take supposed “misgendering” into account in custody cases. Defending Education, an organization that stands for parents and against woke indoctrination in schools, is suing the Democrat-run state over the extremely harmful legislation. Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr....

Section 1 of the bill creates the "Kelly Loving Act". Section 2 provides that, when making child custody decisions and determining the best interests of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual's gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control. A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child. Section 3 prohibits a Colorado court from applying or giving any force or effect to another state's law that authorizes a...

In 1984, you could be tortured in Room 101 for believing that 2 + 2 = 4. Likewise, in Colorado you can be set upon by law enforcement for calling someone by the name their parents gave them or even for referring to them with factually correct pronouns. Leftist Governor Jared Polis has signed into law House Bill 1312: The law expands the state’s antidiscrimination laws, which apply to settings like workplaces and schools, to include provisions related to using a person’s chosen name and referring to them how they wish. “Antidiscrimination” is the Liberalese euphemism for government-imposed discrimination benefiting...

Twitter allowed Cesar Sayoc, the man who allegedly sent apparent bombs to public figures around the country this month, to post more than 240 threats towards 50 different people on its social network without sanction. Meanwhile, the media managed to temporarily force free speech social network Gab offline after it was revealed that the Tree of Life Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting suspect had an account on the platform. According to CNN, an analysis discovered that “Sayoc tweeted more than 240 threats directed to at least 50 public officials, news organizations and media personalities.” “The threats, and Twitter’s apparent inaction regarding them,...

Pope Leo XIV urged reporters to do their part in protecting the “precious gift of free speech” in his first address to the media on Monday – and also called on governments around the world to release journalists they have imprisoned. The pope called for an improved model of communication that “does not seek consensus at all costs, does not use aggressive words, does not follow the culture of competition, and never separates the search for truth from the love with which we must humbly seek it.” “The Church must face the challenges posed by the times. In the same...

A retired British police officer was arrested for “thought crime” comments criticising the spread of antisemitism in the country.Former special constable Julian Foulkes, 71, was arrested and received a police caution, a formal warning given by police to someone who admits guilt to a minor offence, over comments he made on social media, The Telegraph reported on Saturday. The arrest took place in November 2023. It came after Foulkes commented on X over the storming of an airport in Dagestan in which an antisemitic mob attempted to hunt down Jewish passengers. In response to a pro-Palestinian activist’s posts threatening to...

Under the news radar, two ugly power grabs from a pair of would-be Marxist dictators were announced yesterday from South America. From socialist Venezuela: CARACAS (Reuters) -Maria Corina Machado, one of the favorites to win the Venezuelan opposition's nomination for president in an October primary, has been barred from holding public office for 15 years, the country's controller general said in a letter. Machado, a 55-year-old industrial engineer and former lawmaker, is leading polling for the 13-candidate primary, convened to select a unity candidate to face socialist President Nicolas Maduro in a 2024 election. A previous ban placed on her...