If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Those prioritizing free and open-source technology and right-of-repair now have the opportunity to use OpenWRT One – a router designed for OpenWrt open-source firmware. The makers of OpenWRT One are touting it as the first wireless router “designed and built with your software freedom and right to repair in mind.” The joint announcement by the project and the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) said that the router sells for $89 (or $68.42 for the logic board with no case version). Its key features mean that, unlike the devices that depend on proprietary software, it cannot be locked down or “bricked” – i.e., made usable on purpose by manufacturers. The idea is to bring back control and true ownership into this still-overlooked segment of the technology that people nonetheless use every day. While considerable strides have been made over the last decade regarding operating systems and applications, firmware – software embedded in hardware – still remains a problem area for the free and open-source community of users. As for the router specs, they include MediaTek MT7981B SoC, MT7976C WiFi, 1 GB DDR4 RAM, 128 MB SPI NAND + 4 MB SPI NOR flash, two Ethernet ports (2.5 GbE and 1 GbE), a USB host port, M.2 2042 for NVMe SSD, and mikroBUS expansion header. The developers noted that there is a physical switch in the device that allows booting from a separate NOR flash, instead of the default NAND. And it is this that they call a “bricking-resistance feature” – NOR serves to provide a recovery option. The Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit focusing on supporting free and open source (FOSS) projects, right-to-repair, and copyleft licensing, noted that OpenWRT One is copyleft-compliant with its source code. But it is also fully compliant with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements. The organization makes a point that despite the widespread belief that right-to-repair and FCC tests cannot go hand in hand, this device proves that wrong – or as they put it, such claims are no more than FUD (“fear, uncertainty, doubt”). That’s a misleading and manipulative tactic that has long been used by large tech corporations to disseminate actual misinformation about the capabilities and features of FOSS products. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Meet the Router That Gives Power Back to the People appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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Big Tech’s censorship efforts just hit a yuuuge roadblock. In a statement on Truth Social, incoming (and former) President Donald J. Trump announced that he will nominate competition hardliner Gail Slater to lead the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Trump argued the appointment was necessary not just to preserve the free market, but also to protect Americans’ liberties.  Trump wrote: “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech! I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.”  Monopolization and collusion in tech markets often pose direct harms to Americans’ First Amendment liberties. In 2021, just three tech firms — Amazon, Apple and Google — were able to cut off the entirety of America’s access to free speech-oriented social media platform Parler. In 2022, Google denied access to Truth Social for over 40 percent of American cell phone users.  During Trump’s first administration, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division sued Google for illegally monopolizing the search engine market. The case was decided this year: the Court sided with the Antitrust Division and ruled that Google did, indeed, violate antitrust law in monopolizing the market for search engines. Originally an antitrust attorney in Ireland, Slater’s first job after moving to the United States was for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). She later worked at Fox News, at Roku and as an advisor to Trump in his first administration. She is currently a policy advisor to Vice President-elect JD Vance. Throughout her career, Slater has been a persistent and aggressive critic of Big Tech firms’ anti-competitive conduct and disproportionate market power. Slater’s nomination could mark a sharp change in direction for the Antitrust Division. Under President Joe Biden, the Division largely refrained from challenging Big Tech’s market power (though it did continue the Google suit the Trump administration had started).  Biden’s Antitrust Division declined to bring enforcement actions against either Amazon or Meta, even though the independent FTC outlined damning evidence of antitrust violations in its own suits against those firms. In 2022, it was revealed that the Biden administration had secretly coordinated with both Amazon and Meta to censor speech critical of its policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s announcement was met with swift praise from critics of Big Tech power. Antitrust scholar and populist activist Matt Stoller wrote: “This is a very powerful statement that Trump wants to take on big tech.” Legal scholar and Article III Project President Mike Davis stated, “President Trump is making crystal clear he's continuing what he started: The bipartisan antitrust law-enforcement effort to hold accountable the trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists--particularly Google--that crush competition, shutter small businesses, and censor conservatives and others with whom they disagree. President Trump made the perfect choice with Gail Slater.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that they confirm nominees who will fight Big Tech collusion and monopolization. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable

Before and after Election Day 2024, Big Tech platforms voted for election interference. Google was the most egregious election censor, as MRC Free Speech America found the tech giant repeatedly burying right-leaning sources in search results. Google-owned YouTube targeted interviews of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and his ally X owner Elon Musk. Not to be outdone, communist Chinese government-tied TikTok censored videos critiquing Democrats, and Meta’s Instagram banned a TPUSA-affiliated account just before the election. Below are the worst examples of censorship recorded by MRC surrounding Election Day 2024, the months of October and November, in our exclusive CensorTrack database. 1) Google consistently buried right-leaning media outlets in search results before, during and after Election Day. Throughout October, each time MRC researchers entered the search terms “donald trump presidential race 2024” and “kamala harris presidential race 2024” utilizing the Google Search engine, Google rigged the results, requiring users to wade through a torrent of leftist media articles before reaching a piece published by a right-leaning media outlet. Even on Election Day, MRC exposed the same biased search manipulation. And even following the election, Google continued its biased search manipulation when the same two prompts were used. In the week following Election Day, Google also suppressedright-leaning media results in searches for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. 2) YouTube suppressed anticipated interviews of Trump and Musk. Podcast host Joe Rogan interviewed Trump on his popular podcast, but Google’s YouTube platform search suppressed the interview about a week before the election. The interview was one of the most anticipated episodes of Spotify’s most popular U.S. podcast (The Joe Rogan Experience). MRC researchers tested YouTube’s search function after the platform supposedly fixed the problem, but the Rogan interview with Trump was still being suppressed. Users began reporting that searches such as “Joe Rogan Trump” did not show the interview at the top soon after the podcast was posted. YouTube instead provided clips and commentaries about the interview from other sources, as well as media reports about the interview from leftist news outlets such as MSNBC. Rogan also interviewed Musk, who has since been chosen by Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.). The day after the election, MRC discovered that YouTube had placed an age restriction on the first interview Rogan conducted of Musk, long before Musk had ever teamed up with the Trump campaign. Age restrictions can severely suppress viewership. CEO of Good Kid Productions Rob Montz previously explained in 2022, “In practice, age restriction is a death knell: The video can’t be embedded on external websites; viewers have to sign in before they can watch it; and it receives scant – if any – boost from YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, which is a crucial source of views.” 3) TikTok censored a video of a Holocaust survivor condemning Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris. X user @ashsingh1221 replied to a Trump War Room post that included a video of a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor saying Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris should apologize for comparing Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Ash replied, “Pretty sure they're about to BAN me on TIKTOK very soon. I guess they don't like hearing the TRUTH. This is exactly why I recently signed up for @X.” Ash included a screenshot showing that TikTok had disabled the sound on the same Holocaust survivor video when it was shared on the communist Chinese government-tied platform. The TikTok message shown in the screenshot claimed, “This sound violates our Community Guidelines.” TikTok did not specify further, but it did deny Ash’s appeal, according to a subsequently shared screenshot. 4) TikTok removed a journalist critique of a controversial statement from President Joe Biden against Trump supporters. Bongino Report journalist Evita Duffy-Alfonso shared a screenshot of her TikTok censorship notice  about a video she shared on the platform of her reaction to Biden labeling Trump supporters as “garbage.” Duffy-Alfonso’s caption was, “The American people aren't 'garbage,' but our ruling class is.” TikTok imposed a censorship notice that announced, “Removed for violating Community Guidelines.” TikTok did not specify further on precisely what in the video violated its rules. 5) Meta’s Instagram banned right-leaning account just before Election Day. An X user shared screenshots showing that Instagram suspended the brand-new Turning Point USA Walsh University account on Nov. 2 without any explanation. “We suspended your account, Turning Point USA Walsh University[.] 180 days left to appeal or we’ll permanently disable your account,” Instagram’s notice read. Under “Why this happened,” Instagram merely asserted, “Your account, or activity on it, doesn’t follow our Community Guidelines on account integrity.” The platform subsequently denied an appeal, and according to the screenshot, the account was “permanently disabled.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

One can never expect MSNBC's Joy Reid to be the level-headed voice of reason, but even by her standards, her Wednesday edition of The ReidOut was off the charts crazy. According to Reid, Tennessee’s law, currently being challenged at the Supreme Court, that forbids so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors is part of a Nazi-like tradition of targeting transgender people. Reid kicked off the relevant segment by lamenting, “America's dealing with many issues, from grocery prices to gun violence, which is the number one cause of death for kids and teens, but the one issue that Republicans successfully exploited in this year's elections was their fear of the transgender community. Republicans spent at least, get this, $215 million on anti-trans TV ads with the most prominent coming from the Trump campaign itself.”     After a brief clip from the famous “Kamala is for they/them” ad, Reid added, “Trump's argument was that Vice President Kamala Harris is fighting for they/them while he's fighting for you. Erin Reed, an independent journalist covering LGBTQ issues, tracked Trump campaign spending and found that they spent, okay, more money on anti-trans ads than they did on housing, immigration, and economy ads combined.” Reid then reached for a puzzling analogy, “For context, in the 50 states, transgender adult Americans make up .5, not 5, .5 percent of the population, or 1.3 million Americans out of, like, 320 million. There are a little over 300,000 transgender youths in America. That's 1.4 percent of all young people between ages 13 and 17. That would be the numerical equivalent of the Republican Party targeting the entire city of Phoenix, Arizona, population 1.65 million, because they don't like the desert landscape.” It is not like that at all. First, it takes just one athlete to ruin the integrity of a women’s sporting event. Second, the like or dislike of desert landscapes is purely a personal preference, while the questions of what constitutes mankind and womankind and whether children are to be considered all wise are questions that determine whether a society lives in reality or a fantasy land. Still, Reid then reached for another, even more ludicrous analogy, “In fact, there are more kids who have been exposed to gun violence, estimated at 3 million, than there are transgender Americans of all ages in total. Targeting trans people isn't new. It is an age-old tradition which Nazi Germany did with brutally violent ends in the 1930s. While the Supreme Court refuses to do anything about weapons of war in schools, today they seemed inclined to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors.” To make her case, Reid put up two headlines but didn’t elaborate on the corresponding articles. Perhaps there was a good reason why, because comparing not giving hormones to 10-year-olds to concentration camps and eugenics is absurd. Ironically, the people arguing in favor of “gender-affirming care” are the ones that push others towards sterility, but such details are inconvenient for Joy Reid. Here is a transcript for the December 4 shows: MSNBC The ReidOut 12/4/2024 11:45 PM ET 7:35 PM ET JOY REID: America's dealing with many issues, from grocery prices to gun violence, which is the number one cause of death for kids and teens, but the one issue that Republicans successfully exploited in this year's elections was their fear of the transgender community. Republicans spent at least, get this, $215 million on anti-trans TV ads with the most prominent coming from the Trump campaign itself. NARRATOR: Kamala even supports letting biological men compete against our girls in their sports. Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you. REID: Trump's argument was that Vice President Kamala Harris is fighting for they/them while he's fighting for you. Erin Reed, an independent journalist covering LGBTQ issues, tracked Trump campaign spending and found that they spent, okay, more money on anti-trans ads than they did on housing, immigration, and economy ads combined.  For context, in the 50 states, transgender adult Americans make up .5, not 5, .5 percent of the population, or 1.3 million Americans out of, like, 320 million. There are a little over 300,000 transgender youths in America. That's 1.4 percent of all young people between ages 13 and 17. That would be the numerical equivalent of the Republican Party targeting the entire city of Phoenix, Arizona, population 1.65 million, because they don't like the desert landscape.  In fact, there are more kids who have been exposed to gun violence, estimated at 3 million, than there are transgender Americans of all ages in total. Targeting trans people isn't new. It is an age-old tradition which Nazi Germany did with brutally violent ends in the 1930s. While the Supreme Court refuses to do anything about weapons of war in schools, today they seemed inclined to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender affirming care for minors.  While the decision is not expected for months, a majority of the justices parroted a string of debunked talking points, all under the guise of protecting the kids, just not every kid.

New York City council member Robert Holden (D) challenged Mayor Eric Adams (D) to back up his "tough talk" with action concerning the city's sanctuary policies.On Wednesday, Holden called for Adams to reopen the Immigration and Customs Enforcement outpost at Rikers Island, facilitating easier coordination between local law enforcement and federal immigration officers.'Mayor Adams should reopen the ICE office at Rikers Island.'Adams has faced criticism for waffling on his stance regarding sanctuary policies. Although the mayor insists he does not advocate for the deportation of law-abiding illegal aliens, he has intensified discussions about removing those accused of violent offenses.While Adams has acknowledged that the city's sanctuary status has shielded criminal illegal immigrants from ICE, he argues that his hands are largely tied since the policies can be revised only by the city council.On Tuesday, the mayor dared the left to "cancel" him over his commitment to work with the incoming Trump administration to facilitate the deportation of criminal illegal aliens. Adams also noted that the city's taxpayers have doled out more than $6.4 billion to provide services to over 200,000 migrants."We all should be angry at what happened to our city under this administration," Adams declared, referring to President Joe Biden's administration. "Cancel me, because I'm going to protect the people of this city," Adams remarked.Last week, Holden encouraged his fellow Democratic peers to rethink their position on sanctuary policies, arguing that they are "shielding" criminal illegal immigrants from ICE.In a letter to Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), and other city and state leaders, he pressed for the termination of sanctuary jurisdictions within New York.Holden has applauded President-elect Donald Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, for vowing to hold local leaders responsible for thwarting ICE's efforts with sanctuary policies.On Wednesday, Holden challenged Adams to make good on his promise to cooperate with Trump's deportation efforts."Tough talk is good, but actions speak louder," Holden remarked. "The mayor had the chance to amend or repeal sanctuary city laws through his Charter Revision Commission but chose not to. Now, it's time to right these wrongs.""To truly show commitment to public safety, Mayor Adams should reopen the ICE office at Rikers Island and give the NYPD, [Department of Corrections], [Department of Probation] the ability to communicate with ICE and honor detainers for criminal migrants," he said.A spokesperson for Adams responded to Holden's comments, advising that he redirect his efforts toward convincing council members to reverse the sanctuary policies."Mayor Adams has repeatedly said that while we will continue to respect our city's sanctuary laws, we must also have a serious conversation about the small number of individuals who repeatedly commit violent crimes in our city and the consequences they should face," the spokesperson said. "We must also fix this nation's unsuccessful border policies that have led us to this place."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!