Free Republic

Liberal media companies are notorious for censoring information that doesn’t fit their agenda, Google is no exception. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called for a meeting with Google amid a recent study that found the company was unfairly filtering GOP lawmakers’ emails to be hidden in spam folders. After the meeting, Cruz told Politico that the tech giant purposely ignored Republican senators’ questions regarding Gmail’s alleged suppression of conservative political candidates’ emails. “Google deflected, refused to provide any data, repeatedly refused to answer direct questions.” According to the study, Gmail marked 59.3 percent more emails from the right as spam than...

Punishing success is not a path to a better America. Legislation seeking to attack ‘Big Tech’ recently introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in the Senate and Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) in the House has little to do with regulatory policy to protect competitive markets and everything to do with punishing success. The bills are playing on populist sentiment in both parties to change the behavior of big successful companies. If a version of this legislation is passed, it will make the Internet more difficult to use and will diminish competition. Using government power to break up companies merely because...

The age of mask and vaccine mandates has sparked important conversations about what employers, businesses and our government can ask about our personal health decisions. These discussions often reveal widespread misconceptions about who is responsible for keeping that information confidential and secure. Clarity on this issue is of utmost importance for consumers, especially with the rise of smartphone apps hungry for health data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 created national standards for protecting individuals’ health information. Many people assume the law applies to any entity that might request or handle health information. In fact, the...

President Trump recently announced plans to launch his own social media platform called “TRUTH Social.” This puts an end to speculation that the former president would launch a social media site or some other digital platform to reach his base. The new platform made a big splash during its announcement, with only invited guests allowed as part of the soft launch. While some are quick to point to the seeming hypocrisy of TRUTH Social’s terms and conditions, the launch of this platform could be a positive development for internet regulations. President Trump’s high profile expulsion from large social media platforms...

Facebook is changing its company name to "Meta." Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement last week after several weeks of terrible press and political attacks against the company. Zuckerberg wants the company's focus to be on what he calls the "metaverse," an online virtual reality world that connects to actual reality. On October 4, 2021, Facebook went dark. So too did its other outlets, WhatsApp and Instagram. A friend texted me, "I cannot remember the last time I pooped without reading memes on Instagram." The outage came as Congress began hearings on Facebook, complete with a whistleblower, Frances Haugen. Congress wants...

The September 29 lead headline on Drudge Report was even more apocalyptic and alarming than normal, featuring a giant YouTube logo, front and center, covered by a red “cancel” circle. The headline declared, “YOUTUBE BANS ALL ‘ANTI-VAX’ CONTENT.’” Secondary headlines also sounded ominous tones: “Sydney warns unvaccinated face total social isolation IDEFINITELY when lockdown ends . . .”; “UNITED AIRLINES firing employees who refuse shot”; “Biden Order Mandate Enforcement With Up To $700,000 Fine . . .” – and more. Are things really as bad as they seem? In a word, yes. But let me say at the outset that...

If there is nothing to hide, why are so many social media platforms and politicians working so hard to silence dissent and any counter opinions, no matter how well founded. Instead of silencing others, let those crazy conservatives speak and spout their "lies" so that people can see how unfounded their positions are. Any attempts to question the 2020 election are met with outrage, shame, and derision. If conservatives are supporting "the big lie" about a stolen election, then let them embarrass themselves by letting their "obviously false" claims come to light. When all else fails, you can always call...

resident Joe Biden wants to suppress speech that discourages Americans from being vaccinated against COVID-19. Because the First Amendment does not allow him to do that, he is asking Facebook and other social media companies to do it for him. Or at least that's the way White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who calls the Biden administration's demands for speech restrictions "our asks," describes the situation. But given the federal government's power to make life difficult for Facebook et al., the line between a request and a command is hazy and so is the line between private content moderation and...

The New York Times claims in a new report that the Department of Justice has plans to file antitrust charges against Google within the coming weeks. The New York Times reports that the Justice Department plans to bring an antitrust case against Google within the next few weeks after Attorney General William P. Barr reportedly overruled lawyers who said they needed more time to build a case against the tech giant....