That is a scary thought. Hopefully not the case.
You can check to see what servers your traffic routes through by typing “tracert freerepublic.com” at the command prompt of a Windows system.
When I executed the command it went from my ISP, to Level3 (backbone provider) to the ISP for Free Republic. If there was any monitoring taking place it would likely be at Level 3 although it could be the ISP for FR.