Articles by Logan Washburn via The Federalist

Free Speech

The Department of Defense has allocated millions of dollars to create phony social media profiles the government could turn against Americans.

February 25, 2025 Logan Washburn via The Federalist 4
While this may appear benign, it is a shocking admission — the government sponsored a massive network of fake social media accounts that it could manipulate, capable of capturing users’ data.

“This DARPA contract involved the development and deployment of technology to create and manage fake social media accounts at scale,” The Federalist’s CEO Sean Davis posted on X. “This is far more insidious than a simple government payment to a news agency.”

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Censorship

JD Vance: Everything We Do Should be to Defend Democracy, But Europe is Abandoning Shared Values

February 22, 2025 Oliver JJ Lane via Breitbart News 0
For years we’ve been told everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defence of democracy. But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials, threatening to cancel others, we have to ask if we are holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves because I fundamentally think we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values, we must live them.

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Censorship

USAID Funded Massive ‘News’ Platform, Extending ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’ To Billions Worldwide

February 17, 2025 Tyler Durden via Zero Hedge 0
USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, “Internews Network” (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and “training” over 9000 journalists (2023 figures). IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.

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Legal

Virginia Teacher Reinstated after Being Fired for Her Christian Views on Gender

February 15, 2025 Anugrah Kumar via The Washington Stand 1
Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the district asserting that the First Amendment, Title VII and Virginia law protect teachers who speak on public matters in a personal capacity.

“… As interpreted by the Supreme Court of Virginia, … [the teacher] has the right in her capacity as a citizen to freely speak and write regarding her religious views and political views as they are informed by her faith — and neither she nor any other teacher of [the school district] may be penalized for speech expressed in a private capacity — whether that speech takes place pre-employment, or during employment but in a private capacity,” read the letter.

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Censorship

Mark Zuckerberg Wants Us to Forgive, Forget Facebook’s Sins

February 14, 2025 Daniel Cochrane via The Daily Signal 2
Zuckerberg and Meta leadership concealed the overtly political motives of their censorship for years.

Only after the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Zuckerberg in contempt did the company fully cooperate with the investigation and produce all evidence of Meta’s collusion with various government entities like the White House and the FBI.

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Censorship

If You Wanted Proof DEI Is a Cudgel to Silence Opponents, Look No Further

February 12, 2025 Tyler O'Neill via The Daily Signal 0
While the SPLC touts the virtues of “diversity,” it actively seeks to quash diversity of opinion by demonizing those who dissent from its leftist agenda. It brands conservatives who want to enforce immigration law “anti-immigrant hate groups.” It brands advocates for religious freedom “anti-LGBTQ hate groups.” It brands parental rights groups such as Moms for Liberty as “anti-government extremists.”

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Media

New FCC Chair Turns the Spotlight on Publicly Funded NPR, PBS

February 8, 2025 Matthew Xiao via The Washington Free Beacon 1
NPR and PBS, both of which receive federal funding, “could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr wrote in a Wednesday letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

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