Free Republic

Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram will be cut off in the coming weeks after Meta said Tuesday that a “fundamentally flawed” law is forcing the company to make the tough decision. Canada’s Online News Act, passed by its leftist legislature earlier this summer, requires Big Tech companies to negotiate agreements with Canadian news outlets and pay them for news content shared on social media platforms, Reuters reported. Meta spokesman Andy Stone slammed the law in a tweet on Tuesday and said ending access to news on its platforms was the only option. “Today we’ve begun the process...

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that social media company chief executives should be held accountable if hate speech is not monitored and removed on their platforms. Discussing the investigation into the mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store, Hochul said, “I want to know what people knew and when they knew it and calling upon law enforcement as well as our social media platforms. The CEOs of those companies need to be held accountable and assure all of us that they’re taking every step humanly possible to be able to monitor this information. How these...

Three stories about apolitical businesses and charities, like the many others before them, portend a scary future for using social media platforms to market one's cause or business.Three stories about apolitical businesses and charities, like the many others before them, portend a scary future for using social media platforms to market one's cause or business. The second story is even worse. It involves an incredible charity called the Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center (ECCAC), whose mission is to provide support for children who have been sexually or physically abused, neglected, or assaulted. What was ECCAC’S social media crime?Facebook categorizes ECCAC...

Platforms are rapidly removing Donald Trump’s account or accounts affiliated with pro-Trump violence and conspiracies, like QAnon and #StoptheSteal. Here is a running list:

Reforms Strike Balance of Protecting Citizens While Preserving Online Innovation and Free Speech The Department of Justice released today a set of reform proposals to update the outdated immunity for online platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.  Responding to bipartisan concerns about the scope of 230 immunity, the department identified a set of concrete reform proposals to provide stronger incentives for online platforms to address illicit material on their services while continuing to foster innovation and free speech.  The department’s findings are available here. “When it comes to issues of public safety, the government is the...

The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to shield themselves from lawsuits over their content, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives. The reforms would make companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter more liable for a wide array of content posted on their sites. And it would also push those companies to be more aggressive in addressing harmful conduct on their sites, The Wall Street Journal reported, and to be fairer and more consistent in their decisions...

New channels and a new platform are now coming on line. As an ongoing leap into streaming channels, a new platform has been added recently to Roku INSTANT TV This is being added slowly, piece meal, and is an ongoing process We first found the individual stations before knowing of INSTANT TV. Being inquisitive, checked further and found the following This information and a few small bugs lead me to believe the total process is still in progress. Here is the ROKU blog which is received on a regular basis https://blog.roku.com/ Some of the channels available with this platform can...

Many decisions are made at the president’s desk, but the major political party to which he or she belongs wields significant power over which domestic and international policies are advanced and what becomes law. Here is a summary of the parties’ positions on some of the vital issues facing the country. Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, stated, “We are a two-party system…we may not like it, but that’s a reality. A third party candidate is not going to win. The reality is that one of the candidates representing the two major parties is going to be elected...

The Bee Gees - a musical group founded in 1958. The group's line-up consisted of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were successful for most of their decades of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s/early 1970s, and as prominent performers of the disco music era in the late 1970s. Tracks: 1) 0:00 Night Fever 2) 03:24 Stayin' Alive 3) 07:24 You Should Be Dancing 4) 11:32 More Than a Woman 5) 14:40 How Deep Is Your Love 6) 18:37 Too Much Heaven 7) 23:27 Fanny...

House Speaker John Boehner was quoted during the Republican National Convention as saying, “Have you ever met anybody who read the Party platform? I never met anybody.” Scoffing at the Party’s platform is the typical attitude of establishment-backed politicians who don’t want to be bothered with addressing the hopes and goals of grassroots voters. Downgrading the platform is the mark of losing candidates such as Bob Dole and John McCain. The Republican Platform is written by a committee of one man and one woman from each state who are elected by those who have already been elected from their state...

The MTA may install sliding mechanical doors on subway platforms so riders can't fall, jump - or get pushed to the tracks. The metal-and-glass doors would be part of a barrier along a platform's edge and would open only after a train stops at the station, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority document shows. The system would help prevent tragic incidents, like the Sunday morning death on the L train tracks of 24-year-old Brendan Mahoney in Brooklyn, officials said. And it would protect riders from killers like Andrew Goldstein, the mental patient who shoved 32-year-old Kendra Webdale to her death in front...

Note: This is a letter I send every election cycle to my centers of influence in an attempt to awaken Catholics to their civic duty. I welcome your comments. For my Friends, Family and Clergy, Our political party system gives the voting public a collective political voice and a means to implement its priorities in self-governance. The power of the political party comes from the individuals they attract; the greater the numbers, the greater the power. When we choose our party affiliation and vote, we give our assent to their agenda, add our voice to the party message, and add...

For my Friends, Family and Clergy, Our political party system gives the voting public a political voice and a means to implement its priorities in self-governance. The power of the political party comes from the individuals they attract: the greater the numbers, the greater the power. When we choose our party affiliation, we add our voice to the party message, give our assent to their agenda and add to their power. The party platform, then, becomes the common mission of each party member. When was the last time we actually read our political party platform to see what our party...

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the conventions of the two major political parties were more than carefully orchestrated photo opportunities and pep rallies. The television networks have long since acceded to their audiences' wishes and ended the tradition of "gavel-to-gavel" coverage of these political jamborees. They are right to do so. Once the conventions stopped being news events and became endless partisan infomercials, there was no reason to treat them as being any different from any other garden-variety political rally. But that hasn't stopped the parties from continuing some of the time-honored traditions of the...

Author's Note: I posted this to FreeRepublic late Friday night to get some feedback before I sent it to my email list. The response back from my friends and family that this should get wide attention, encourages me to repost it when others may see it. Dear Family and Friends, We are headed into a contentious and consequential election. Although we would all like to look at our elected representatives as individuals and not make decisions based on party affiliation, I feel the need to share some basic truths about the parties that you may have overlooked in your individual...

ABOARD THE USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN, May 1, 2006 – There's a "ring of steel" around one of the most important economic targets in the world. A supertanker fills up at the Al Basra Oil Terminal in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Coalition forces are protecting the terminal from attack. Photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. That's the way Royal Navy Cmdr. Steve Dainton, the captain of HMS St. Albans, described the coalition maritime protection around Iraqi oil terminals in the Northern Arabian Gulf. The terminals generate some $18,000 a second for Iraq as they pump crude...

The Al Basrah Oil Terminal as seen from the roof of the platform. The terminal produces approximately two million barrels of oil each day. On Feb. 7, 2006, the Iraqi navy’s marine unit took the lead in platform security. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class John J. Pistone Iraqi Navy Protects Country’s Oil Platforms The Iraqi navy consists of two squadrons, a patrol boat squadron and an assault boat squadron, and also includes one marine battalion. By U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class John J. Pistone Multinational Security Transition Command—Iraq UM QASR, Iraq, Feb. 13, 2006 —...

...The Republican Party came to power in the 1990s partly as a result of the implosion of the unworkable health-care proposal that the Democrats made early in the Clinton Administration. Since then, the Republicans have evaded or derided the issue. This is a grave error. Guaranteed health insurance is not a question of help for the underprivileged. Almost all ordinary people at some point in their lives will have trouble providing health care for themselves and their families, or will find that the insurance they do have is inadequate. Furthermore, the overpriced and over-bureaucratized system in the United States has...

While the media likes to tell people what the key topics of this upcoming election are, I'm interested in knowing what the average Freeper thinks. Think of this as an informal poll. What I'll do is keep track of the posting and list the ratings of the issues you feel are most important after a day or so..... Thanks in advance.

<p>Along with national security, the economy will be among the two biggest issues in the 2004 election, say political observers. And while the economy has been sagging throughout much of President Bush's first term, the numbers suggest it is picking up steam.</p>