Free Republic

FBI officials say they are growing increasingly concerned about a loose network of violent predators who befriend teenagers through popular online platforms and then coerce them into escalating sexual and violent behavior -- pushing victims to create graphic pornography, harm family pets, cut themselves with sharp objects, or even die by suicide.

A highly sought-after drug kingpin was captured when officials tracked his wife’s social media account and pinpointed his location during their lavish European vacation. Luis Manuel Picado Grijalba, 43, was arrested at a London airport in December after he was accused of shipping cocaine from Limón, Costa Rica to the US, Nicaragua’s La Prensa reported. Grijabla, who goes by his alias “Shock,” was wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration for several months for his alleged involvement in international drug trafficking, said Randall Zúñiga the director of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department (OIJ). The alleged kingpin – who rarely traveled...

Retail store closures surged in 2024, reaching their highest levels since the start of the pandemic, a new study said.A total of 7,325 U.S. stores closed in 2024, driven by inflation and an increasing shift toward online shopping, according to retail data firm Coresight Research. The closings marked the steepest decline in brick-and-mortar retail since nearly 10,000 stores closed in 2020. While 5,970 stores opened—the highest yearly number since 2012—closures outpaced openings by a net loss of 1,355 stores. "Retailers that were unable to adapt supply chains and implement technology to cut costs were significantly impacted, and we continue to...

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday launched a page on his campaign website he says is to combat "misinformation and disinformation" being spread online and by political leaders regarding the ongoing wildfires in Southern California. He says the site will "continue to update and provide valuable, fact-based information to the public around policies, budget allocations, personnel on the ground and more.." The webpage is notably located on Newsom's campaign website funded by Newsom for California, and not on an official government site. “There is an astonishing amount of mis- and dis-information being spread online -- much of it by so-called leaders...

The State Department’s controversial Global Engagement Center (GEC) shut down this week after congressional lawmakers nixed reauthorizing the agency in spending legislation to keep the government open. “The Global Engagement Center closed on December 23, 2024,” read a message on the agency’s website. The GEC came under fire from House Republicans after journalist Matt Taibbi uncovered evidence that it pressured US social media platforms early in the COVID-19 pandemic to censor Americans online, purportedly to counter “disinformation,” such as theories that the virus leaked out of a laboratory in China. “We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a...

Critics call gambling “the devil’s playground.” Losses to online gambling in the U.S. now look set to live down to that estimation by surpassing the $1 trillion mark in coming years at the expense of American bettors. U.S. lawmakers and government regulators “cannot continue to rely on the theory of responsible gambling, which shifts the burden of harm prevention onto individuals,” Derek Webb, founder and chief funder of the California-based Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said Wednesday in a release forecasting the impending losses.

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YES!This about all the censorship. (President Trump Video Below)https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1855119856649355729

As my colleague Bonchie reported, Axios reporter Sara Fischer appeared on CNN to complain about former President and GOP nominee Donald Trump having an unfettered microphone with Elon Musk on X. The Monday night conversation hails Trump's return to the X (formerly Twitter) platform where he was unceremoniously booted almost four years before, and it has the entire legacy media complex shook. (Snip) My Twitchy colleague PolitiBunny is quite correct. They despise the fact that they are on the outside looking in. You can hear the sarcasm dripping from Fischer's voice when she says, "Online fringe." This online fringe she...

A man who shared racially aggravated online social media posts linked to national civil unrest has been jailed. Lee Joseph Dunn, of Egremont, Cumbria, pleaded guilty to one offence of sending, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. Carlisle Magistrates' Court heard the crime occurred on 30 and 31 July. The 51-year-old, of Church Street, who was said by his lawyer to have apologised and removed the content, was handed an eight week sentence. District judge John Temperley told the Sellafield worker his term had...

His reputation is nothing to brag about. It’s an open and shut case online against soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who scored a dismal 56% in negative sentiment in discussions, articles and mentions across various platforms in the US over the last three months, according to data provided to The Post by social media expert Rila Global Consulting. In 483,000 posts, critics pointed to an array of policy failures and poor decisions, including his kid-glove pro-criminal approach to crime in Gotham, his leniency with anti-Israel protesters, his stance on policing and his criminal pursuit of former President Donald Trump....

Republicans’ online donation website was so overwhelmed in the minutes after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty that its functionality was incapacitated. WinRed, the Republican Party’s official online donation platform, reportedly shut down after high traffic following the verdict. The Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts, with Judge Juan Merchant setting sentencing for July 11 – only four days before the Republican National Convention assembles to formally nominate Trump.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday was dinged on social media after saying that the 4.8-magnitude earthquake that shook New York hit “west of Manhattan” rather than mentioning New Jersey. “A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit west of Manhattan and has been felt throughout New York,” Hochul said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” she continued. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the quake was near Lebanon, N.J, a description...

A proposed law in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Canada will reportedly allow judges to throw adults in jail for life if they advocate for genocide online.Fox News reported Thursday that the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) would permit life sentences. The article also said, “The law would also allow a provincial judge to impose house arrest and a fine if there were reasonable grounds to believe a defendant ‘will commit’ an offense.”After Justice Minister Arif Virani introduced the bill, he said that in his role as a father, he was frightened of the dangers children might encounter online.Virani also said...

President Joe Biden’s response to Sesame Street Muppet Elmo’s viral online wellness check backfired as Americans blamed the 46th president for their depression. “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” Elmo asked in a Monday X/Twitter post. Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing? — Elmo (@elmo) January 29, 2024 The comment section of Elmo’s post received thousands of replies from X/Twitter users who expressed dread and despair while living under the Biden administration. Biden himself also replied to the Sesame Street Muppet, writing, “I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds...

Online spending during the 2023 holiday season hit a new record, according to a recent report from data firm Adobe Analytics. The numbers, released Thursday, showed online spending between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 spiked by nearly 5 percent to a record high of $222.1 billion on retailer websites and apps. This is an increase of 10.4 billion from the previous year, Adobe noted. Mobile shopping also had a breakthrough this past holiday season, surpassing desktop for the first time and accounting for 51.1 percent of online sales, according to the report. This is up from 47 percent in 2022...

@TPostMillennial Tucker Carlson calls out DeSantis' campaign: “The people who represent him online are the nastiest, the stupidest, and the most zero-sum people I’ve ever seen in my life.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Tuesday that New York’s government is stepping up its fight against online hate amid an uptick in anti-Muslim and antisemitic rhetoric since the start of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. “Across our state New Yorkers are afraid, if they have family or friends in Israel, Gaza, other places, they’re afraid for their safety,” Hochul said during a press conference. “At home, many people are wrestling with the fear for the first time ever sometimes in their lives being victim of a hate crime.”

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to X to criticize Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday. Musk called the federal government’s approach to online streaming regulations “shameful.” Musk’s comments were in response to a post by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who described Canada’s new regulations as “one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes.” The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced a series of measures aimed at modernizing Canada’s broadcasting framework on Friday. Among these, online streaming services operating in Canada with annual revenues exceeding $10 million are required to register with the commission by November...

A Virginia Democratic candidate running for the commonwealth’s House of Delegates is being accused of performing sex acts with her husband in front of an online audience and encouraging viewers to send them "tip" money. Nurse practitioner Susanna Gibson, who is running in a competitive race in suburban Richmond for the House of Delegates in the 57th district, reportedly used a platform called Chaturbate to stream sex acts with her husband. Gibson, a 40-year-old mother of two, is said to have posted more than a dozen videos that were archived on a site called Recurbate in September 2022, which is...