Censorship - Is Censorship Sweeping the Nation?

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'What Is A Woman’ Wins The Free Speech Battle | Ep. 1175

Today on the Matt Walsh Show, it was an epic battle for free speech at Twitter, as we posted our film What Is a Woman and got immediately tagged with the "hate speech" label. But in the end, the left's attempts to yet again censor and suppress our message only backfired in a big way. We'll talk about everything that has happened in the one of the most wild 24 hour stretches in the history of the Daily Wire.

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When Your Own Government CONFIRMS It Paid Censors to Silence You…

If you’ve been around for very long, you know this website has suffered repeated hits for our content. We’ve been defunded, we’ve been hit by algorithmic changes that make it harder for people to find us, and we’ve been classified as a “disinformation” site. All of this has happened despite the fact we offer factual coverage and often use mainstream sources that are not targeted by censors.

While I’ve had my suspicions since the attacks first began, imagine the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I recently read an expose by the Washington Examiner in which the United States government readily admitted giving funding to the very business that abruptly defunded my website back in 2021.

The US State Department “stands by” grant to fund censorship

It’s hard to believe that I’m writing this about the government of the United States of America, but here we are in 2023 with our own government striving to make at least half the country out to be terrorists and second-class citizens. An exclusive report by the Washington Examiner states:

Full article ...

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Another Twitter Executive Out After Attempts To Stop ‘What Is A Woman?’ From Appearing On Platform: Report

A second Twitter senior executive working on content and safety issues is no longer at the company after there were internal attempts by some to stop The Daily Wire’s “What Is A Woman?” documentary from being streamed on the platform while Twitter owner Elon Musk was traveling outside the U.S. on business.

The Wall Street Journal reported that A.J. Brown, Twitter’s head of brand safety and ad quality, is no longer at the company. Ella Irwin, the head of Twitter’s trust and safety department, abruptly resigned from the company Thursday afternoon.

Both of their exits were related to what unfolded with Twitter’s attempts to stop The Daily Wire from streaming the documentary on Thursday evening. Musk confirmed this on Twitter.

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Irish people could be jailed for ‘hate speech’, critics of proposed law warn

Bill seeks to expand groups protected to include those with ‘gender identities’, including transgender people.

https://archive.ph/SeAZd#selection-2797.4-2801.113

Irish citizens who campaign against transgender women being able to use female changing rooms or crisis centres risk jail under an “Orwellian” hate-speech law, critics have claimed.

The Irish senate last week debated the controversial Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022.

The bill seeks to expand the range of people protected from hate speech to include those with “gender identities”, including transgender or “gender other than those of male or female”.

Supporters of the bill argue that Ireland needs to update its hate-speech protections to match the evolution of society and social media.

The bill, introduced in 2022 by justice minister Helen McEntee, has drawn global interest, with Donald Trump Jr describing it as “insane” and Elon Musk as “very concerning”.

Expected to become law

It is expected to become law later this year, with the Senate unlikely to make any major amendments, given its recommendations can be rejected by Parliament.

Under the law, existing offences such as assault or criminal damage will receive higher sentences if they are aggravated by “hatred”.

The law will also criminalise possessing material intended to be shared that could incite hatred towards people with “protected characteristics”. The material does not actually have to be disseminated to the public in any way.

Reacting to fears that the bill could have a chilling effect on free speech, the government last year told the Irish Times that the bar for criminal prosecution will be “very high”.

“Criminal incitement to hatred will not be an area that anybody will stray into by accident,” the Department of Justice told the Irish Times.

Protecting ‘vulnerable people’

In order to be prosecuted, government ministers have argued, people will have to deliberately and recklessly stir up hatred against citizens with “protected characteristics”, which also include race, religion and disability.

Debating the law in the Senate last week, Irish Green Party senator Pauline O’Reilly said it was right to restrict people’s freedom of speech to protect vulnerable people from “discomfort”.

“If a person’s views on other people’s identities make their lives unsafe and insecure, and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace, our job as legislators is to restrict those freedoms for the common good,” she said.

“One cannot do and say whatever one likes in our society.”

Earlier in the debate, independent senator Ronan Mullen queried the wisdom of potentially punishing people for debating gender identity.

”Will mocking memes be tolerated?” he asked.

“Will carrying a placard stating ‘Men cannot breastfeed’ warrant a hate-speech investigation or up to five years’ imprisonment, a lifelong label as a criminal hater and all of the stigma and life limitation that goes with that? Nobody actually knows.”

‘Misinformation and distortion’

Ms McEntee said that much of the debate around the legislation has “unfortunately also been subject to deliberate misinformation and distortion, including from fringe commentators and US-based social media personalities”.

She stressed that section 11 of the bill “explicitly” provides protection for freedom of expression, noting that “discussion or criticism of matters relating to a protected characteristic does not constitute incitement to hatred in and of itself”.

Ms McEntee said: “You have a right to express your convictions and your opinions, no matter how unpopular they might be.”

Helen Joyce, a former Economist journalist and director of advocacy at campaign group Sex Matters, disagreed in a series of posts on Twitter.

“It [the bill] is likely to criminalise voicing views that risk resulting in ‘hatred’ (remember, there’s no definition of this!) towards male people who want access to women’s changing rooms and sports because they feel female. Penalty: up to five years in jail.

“When a crime has no definition, anyone can be found guilty. And that’s what’s going to happen if this bill becomes law, because it criminalises ‘hate’ without defining it.”

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THE TYRANNICAL TRUDEAU REGIME JUST DID THE UNTHINKABLE AND THEY'RE NOT STOPPING | REDACTED NEWS

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's censorship agenda progresses with the passing of Bill C-18 in the Senate. This will force social media companies to pay Canadian media to post their stories. Sure, that will show them. Facebook has already said that they won't work with Canada to allow news stories because of this.

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ZEROTIME: New Censorship Bill: Most Dangerous Legislation in Australia with Tony Nikolic

ZEROTIME New Censorship Bill Most Dangerous Legislation in Australia with...

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SCOTT RITTER - FREE SPEECH

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Social media riot shutdowns possible under EU content law, top official says

Thierry Breton responds to French President Emmanuel Macron’s idea.

Social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat will face possible shutdowns when they don't crack down on problematic content during riots under the European Union's content law, Internal Commissioner Thierry Breton said Monday.

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RFK, JR., DESPITE DEMOCRAT OBJECTIONS, GIVES PASSIONATE TESTIMONY AGAINST CENSORSHIP

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Chase Shuts Down Accounts for Dr. Joseph Mercola’s Companies

'I don't know exactly why they did it. But we've looked at everything within our records. There's nothing that we did.'

JPMorgan Chase is shutting down accounts for companies owned by prominent COVID-19 vaccine critic Dr. Joseph Mercola.

The primary accounts for several Mercola-owned businesses, including Mercola Market, are being shut down in August, according to notices reviewed by The Epoch Times.

“Financial institutions have an obligation to know our customers and monitor transactions that flow through our customers’ accounts,” the notices state. “After careful consideration, we decided to close your account because of unexpected activity on these or another Chase account.”

Accounts for Mercola, CEO Steven Rye, Mr. Rye’s wife, chief financial officer Amalia Legaspi, Mrs. Legaspi’s husband, and Mrs. Legaspi’s son are also being closed.

The accountholders are being given until Aug. 11 to move funds to another institution.

They have struggled to get answers on what exactly precipitated the harsh action.

Anthony Anesi, a Chase vice president, told Mr. Rye in a voicemail that he asked for the reason and “was told for legal reasons they can not tell me why they are closing the account.”

Mr. Anesi requested copies of the notices so he could file for reconsideration.

“It’s not a guarantee, once we put in for reconsideration, that they will keep the accounts open. There’s no guarantee of that. But we are going to try because you’re a good client of our institution,” Mr. Anesi said.

Mr. Rye told The Epoch Times that in phone calls with Chase representatives, they said changes were made in the backend and that they cannot access the backend to see the changes.

Mr. Rye said that he believes Chase either based its decision on illegal acts from accountholders, which he says did not take place, or from Chase itself, which could run afoul of a new Florida law that bars banks from denying services to people for their religious, political, or social beliefs.

Dr. Mercola has been a strong critic of the government’s response to COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines. Some of his articles are republished by The Epoch Times.

Chase has “refused to provide any reason” for the debanking, Dr. Mercola said in a statement.

“They won’t say, ‘Hey, what’s this wire for? What’s this transaction for?” Mr. Rye said. “We’ve been doing business for them forever, right? Even in that voicemail, Tony, who we’ve known forever, says, ‘You guys are great customers.’ I don’t know what’s happening.”

He added: “I think it was a little bit surprising to the timing. The COVID stuff has kind of died down. So I found that a little bit unusual. So I can only speculate. I don’t know exactly why they did it. But we’ve looked at everything within our records. There’s nothing that we did.”

Even if the decisions are reversed, it would be hard to trust Chase enough to keep the accounts, Mr. Rye said.

He and others are preparing to move their money to other institutions before the deadline.

A spokesperson for Chase told The Epoch Times in an email that most account closures are done for anti-money laundering or identify verification purposes.

“For privacy reasons, we can’t discuss customer relationships, but we don’t close accounts because of political affiliations, and we didn’t do so in this case,” the spokesperson said.

Mr. Anesi did not respond to a request for comment.

Robert F. Kennedy, a Democrat running for president who has also been critical of the vaccines, was among those decrying what happened.

“Looks like Chase shut down long-time accounts of Mercola’s company, employees, and their family members. No reason given. I wonder if it has anything to do with their medical dissent?” Mr. Kennedy wrote on Twitter. “No payment platform should be allowed to discriminate against people for exercising their right to free speech.”

History of Debanking

Chase has a history of shutting down accounts of people with certain beliefs.

Chase shut down accounts of three right-wing personalities in moves that did not appear to be based on any official company policies, The Epoch Times reported in 2019.

That included an account for Martina Markota, a performing artist-turned-reporter who had worked for the Daily Caller and The Rebel, and an account for Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio.

Chase stopped providing services to Mr. Tarrio just one day after a reporter claimed an online store he owned was linked to the Proud Boys, which was described as a “hate group.”

A spokeswoman for Chase said at the time the events were unrelated.

“He has gotten an email from us, and we have repeatedly talked to him with very clear reasons why. He knows why,” the spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email. “If he agrees in writing that I can share that email with you, I’m happy to do so. But as it stands, I’m not able to share it.”

She also said, “We have never, and would never, shut down any account due to political affiliation.”

In a recording of a call between Mr. Tarrio and a Chase representative, the Chase representative called the account closure “mind-boggling,” adding, “I see nothing that indicates any reason why the account should be closed.”

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Meta platforms censored Americans, as per Facebook files

The Facebook files recently exposed that Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, censored Americans and changed their content moderation rules following requests from the Biden administration during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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A series of recent tweets by Gonzalo Lira about his (current) attempt to escape Ukraine.

I simply don't know. So I decided to die trying.

I rode my motorcycle across Ukraine—1,400 kms in two days.

I'm going to Hungary to ask for political asylum.

When I fail to show up in court in Kharkov, an arrest warrant will be issued, likely an international warrant. https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/status/1686140929277579271

No doubt other EU countries will comply like sheep, returning me to serve five to eight years in a prison labor camp—

—regardless of the fact that Kiev arrested and imprisoned me for >YouTube videos!<

For free speech!

What happened to “European democratic values https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/status/1686140932578529280

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Ukraine Rearrests American Blogger Trying To Enter Hungary For Asylum

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SCOTT RITTER ON GONZALO LIRA'S LATEST DISAPPEARANCE

Scott Ritter presents the other side of the coin.

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DR JOSEPH MERCOLA ON HAVING HIS BANK ACCOUNT CANCELLED BY CHASE BANK

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AUSTRALIA STANDS UP TO WASHINGTON OVER ASSANGE

Senator Malcolm Roberts said that "If the United States government is making an example of Julian Assange -an Australian, not an American citizen - to dissuade other journalists from publishing the truth about illegal US government activity, then it is the job of the Australian government to protect him."