Free Republic

Brazil is moving to regulate X after Elon Musk refused to comply with their anti-free speech demands. Brazil Attorney-General Jorge Messias is lashing out after Musk refused to bend the knee. “We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities.” “It is urgent to regulate social networks.”

The ‘Twitter Files Brazil’ reveal how Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes led a ‘sweeping crackdown on free speech’ and targeted conservative voices in the lead-up to the presidential election. (LifeSiteNews) — Internal information from Twitter has shown how the deep state in Brazil pressured the platform to censor content and interfered in the 2022 presidential election. Journalist and author Michael Shellenberger released the “Twitter Files Brazil,” which show “a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes.” Online censorship has been a known issue in Brazil for a while. According to...

A paltry one in five people in Scotland are in favour of retaining the leftist government’s draconian new speech law as Humza Yousaf faces the prospect of being removed from power at the general election. A survey conducted by the FindOutNow polling firm has found that just 21 per cent of the Scottish public support the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on Monday, criminalising the “stirring up hatred” against several protected classes of people with up to seven years in prison.

Scottish police have warned that the controversial new hate speech law enacted by the leftist government of Humza Yousaf will force police to cut backs on the policing of actual crimes. The head of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), David Threadgold, warned on Saturday that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act will necessitate sacrificing other areas of policing due to the strain on officer time recording and investigating complaints of potential speech violations.

You are “killing people,” President Biden told social media companies a couple of years ago. He sought to shame executives into censoring more Americans. Biden has lashed out at disinformation by anti-vaxxers, “election deniers” and others. This month, those words were thrown back at Biden himself as a “genocide denier” by protesters who have labeled him “Genocide Joe” over his support for Israel. After years of supporting censorship and blacklisting of people with opposing views, politicians and academics are finding themselves the subjects of the very anti-free speech tactics that they helped foster.

A government-funded database, led by the University of Maryland and ostensibly established to track “radicalization,” is targeting a major pro-life group as “terrorists.” Students for Life of America (SFLA), which has 1,400 chapters at campuses across the country, “appears under a ‘Terrorist Group’ label in the raw dataset,” according to a Monday article in The College Fix. The database, called the “Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States” (PIRUS), was funded in part by grants from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for the Study of Terrorism and Behavior (CSTAB). According to the project’s...

Syndicated radio host Mark Levin tore into prominent CNN Biden flack Dana Bash for trying to gaslight viewers on the dangers of the White House censorship regime. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told CNN anchor Erin Burnett April 1 — to her dismay — that it was in fact President Joe Biden’s censorship regime, not former President Donald Trump, that presented the bigger “threat” to America. Kennedy pointed out the Biden administration’s history of jawboning Big Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook to go after the president’s political opponents. Bash, clearly triggered, pathetically tried to “fact-check” Kennedy the...

After spending several years hauling Donald Trump through court in an attempt to puncture his bottom line, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James is now employing the same lawfare tactics against VDARE, an anti-immigration website... “I launched VDARE.com on Christmas Eve 1999,” wrote Peter Brimelow, VDARE’s founder and editor, on Friday. “So it is perhaps appropriate that, on Good Friday 2024, the anniversary of Christ’s death, I must announce VDARE.com’s crucifixion by New York State’s communist Attorney General Letitia James.” VDARE has not been charged with any crime, yet has “fought NYAG Letitia James, at a cost of up to...

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) pursuit of pro-life activists has resulted in four more Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act convictions. Four people — Eva Edl, 87, of Aiken South Carolina; Eva Zastrow, 24, of Dover, Arkansas; James Zastrow, 25, of Eldon, Missouri; and Paul Place, 24, of Centerville, Tennessee — were found guilty on Tuesday of violating the FACE Act during a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion clinic in 2021, the Daily Wire reported. The activists face up to a year in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. They await sentencing on July 30. Six...

Four pro-life activists have been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and now face prison time and thousands of dollars in fines. According to a Department of Justice statement released on Wednesday, the pro-lifers face a “maximum of six months in prison, five years of supervised release, and fines of up to $10,000.” The four activists — Eva Edl, 87; Eva Zastro, 24; James Zastro, 25; and Paul Place, 24 — were convicted of FACE Act violations in federal court on Tuesday for a protest held at a Tennessee abortion clinic in March 2021....

The US must be aware of and avoid Russian disinformation operations at all costs if it wants to maintain its Western values and help Ukraine win the war, conflict analysts argue."Basic facts are in question daily as the Kremlin floods the Western debate with its narratives," analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a March 27 report.The analysts said that "the notion that the war is unwinnable because of Russia's dominance is a Russian information operation, which gives us a glimpse of the Kremlin's real strategy and only real hope of success."For years, Russia has...

Tucker Carlson claimed that he was banned from speaking at his prep school Alma Mater because administration thought he was 'too dangerous' and that 'people could be killed.' Video of Carlson talking to a group of students from St. George's School on Zoom was posted on X, as he told them about the lengthy ordeal he had to go through in order to speak to them. Carlson attended the boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island as a teenager, sent his three children there and even got married on campus to his wife Susan Andrews, who also attended the school.

Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis reportedly cited the incident involving members of the New York City Fire Department booing state Attorney General Letitia James and chanting in favor of former President Trump last month in suggesting that a racist culture persists at the FDNY.

Blaze Media host Glenn Beck emphasized the utter ridiculousness of leftist website traffic cops like NewsGuard masquerading as unbiased truth gatekeepers, and relied on original MRC Free Speech America research to do it. Beck ripped into the discredited NewsGuard that has been outed as a leftist operation targeting the advertising dollars of right-leaning media sources during the March 27 edition of Glenn TV. In his X post promoting the segment, Beck referred to NewsGuard as “propaganda” for continuing to behave like an Orwellian arbiter of truth, despite the glaring evidence of its so-called ratings system consistently being shown to favor...

J.K. Rowling won a significant victory over Scotland’s new speech restrictions after daring the police to arrest her over comments criticising transgender ideology, as Police Scotland said they would not take criminal actions against the Harry Potter author after activists reported her statements to law enforcement. Successfully calling the bluff of the leftist government of First Minister Humza Yousaf, J.K. Rowling struck a stinging blow against the oppressive Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, after she goaded the police to arrest her as the bill came into law on Monday for insisting that transgender “women” are in reality still...

Social media comments made by JK Rowling challenging Scotland's new hate crime law are not being treated as criminal, Police Scotland has said. The Harry Potter author described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures. The new law creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to protected characteristics. The force said complaints had been received but no action would be taken. Reacting to the news, Ms Rowling posted on X: "I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be...

Some notes on the passing scene: ~Yesterday was another dark day for the west's fast-fading freedom of speech. Scotland's new "Hate Crime" law came into effect, formalising (among other things) my perennial gag that in the UK (or at least this miserable corner of it) everything is policed except crime: The wanker coppers will now be spending ever more of their worthless days sitting around monitoring your Twitter account. Oh, don't worry, Scotland's "First Minister" and the plods themselves have been at pains to assure you that they're going to keep a sense of proportion about their new thought-crime powers....

Far-left NY judge Juan Merchan Monday night expanded Trump’s gag order and barred the former president from criticizing his family members. Last week Judge Merchan hit Trump with a gag order. Merchan ordered Trump to refrain from making any public statements about witnesses and jurors in the Stormy Daniels case. Alvin Bragg accused Trump of violating the gag order when he criticized Merchan’s daughter even though she isn’t a witness or a juror. President Trump last Wednesday said the daughter of the far-left judge who just hit him with a gag order in the Stormy Daniels ‘hush payment’ case posted...

The new measures aim to tackle the harm caused by hatred and prejudice but have come under fire from opponents who claim they could stifle free speech. Scotland's controversial new hate crime laws have come into force – with a Holyrood minister saying people 'could be investigated' for misgendering someone online.

Author and outspoken feminist J.K. Rowling has dared police in Scotland to arrest her for criticising transgender ideology as the country’s controversial hate crime legislation came into effect on Monday. Rowling, who resides in Scotland, has warned that the leftist-separatist Scottish National Party government’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act will have a stifling effect on freedom of speech and vowed to continue espousing her belief that men cannot become women.