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Free Republic, or "FR," is a American Internet forum and activist organization for conservatives and those on the political right.
Origins
Free Republic was founded in 1996 by Jim Robinson of California as a discussion site during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Members would copy articles from other news sources and then the community would discuss them. The group first came to prominence during the Clinton impeachment controversy when protests and write-in campaigns were organized. The group also played an important role in the controversy over the disputed presidential election of 2000 where it again organized protests, including the creation of "Sore/Loserman" signs — an allusion to Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. The group has also played a role in organizing demonstrations supporting the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
Board users
There is no membership structure, or regional chiefs. Users of the board ("Freepers") organize local gatherings on the various message boards. There is a member directory, but like most internet forums, nearly everyone has a pseudonym and few people divulge their true identity in their online profiles. All members are afforded a mail service that allows them to send, receive and store private messages to each other. Many also inform other members about certain interest areas on "ping lists," lists of users interested in a certin subject that are alerted to ongoing discussions on that topic.
Discussion
Since the right-of-center in American politics is not uniform in all its beliefs, the posters on Free Republic are not uniform in their beliefs either. However, the community is largely, but not exclusively, united on certain issues, including being against gun control and abortion, having a strong dislike for Bill and Hillary Clinton, being against the formation of a Palestinian state, and against affirmative action and gay rights. [1] (http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1083207/posts?page=36#36) On some issues the readership is quite divided. Three main groups can be observed: The Republican stalwarts, who are very pro-Bush and the Republican Party; the Christian conservatives; and the staunch libertarians.
Divisive issues include evolution and the legalization of soft drugs; although the organization has an official policy of not permitting racism, some posts allegedly show it. Examples include calling Palestinian children "bombs still growing" (a reference to suicide bombing), racial references in the song parody Crying (Frying Abu-Jamal) [2] (http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a377afda025c2.htm), and frequent references to the French as "weasels" [3] (http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/896711/replies?comment=14); however, many posters receive suspensions or even bans for posting material considered racist. The moderators often remove or ban posters who criticize Israel, the Iraq or Afghanistan war, etc., from its discussion boards.
The Web site does not seek to be a board that represents all political viewpoints: it is a meeting point for those to the right of the political center in America, and articles posted which contain unwelcome (usually left-wing) views are customarily ridiculed and tagged with the words BARF ALERT after the headline, a feature meant to warn the reader in advance of an opinion running counter to the prevailing perspective of the site's intended audience. Freepers are often called to vote en masse in off-site online polls, and there is a daily prayer for Bush.
Manipulating polls
The manipulation of polls, which is not unique to the FR community, has not been without controversy. Online polls are not always representative of the population at large. Self-selected polls rarely are representative, as only activists will go and vote.
In some cases, Freepers merely try to convince as many other Freepers as possible to vote. It is likely that most Freepers would not have voted in these polls if they were not mentioned in FP. Many of the polls that Freepers urge to "freep" are local television or newspaper websites.
Typically, online polls try to prevent multiple votes from the same user, by using cookies or not allowing multiple votes from the same IP address. Some online polls today even block votes that are referred from the same Web page (like, for example, Free Republic). There are ways around these things, but they require at least better than average computer expertise and are somewhat time consuming. Most polls that are manipulated simply have a large number of people from one group voting once, and this certainly skews results for local papers or other media much more so than for national sites. Many online polls have since become much more adept at preventing massive ballot stuffing, though it cannot be totally eliminated
It has been observed that the group has borrowed many of its behaviors from traditionally leftist organizations. The mass demonstrations are one example. The organization of boycotts, such as that against France over the Iraq crisis, is another. The group is funded through quarterly donations drives which mimic PBS. The Web site does not charge a regular usage fee.
Lawsuit and settlement
Because it has been a practice of its users to copy and paste copyrighted news stories in their entirety to its discussion boards, FreeRepublic was sued by The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. (Reuters and The Wall Street Journal were part of the original consortium threatening legal action, but they dropped out before the lawsuit was filed.) Many members view the lawsuit as an unsuccessful conspiracy by the leftist media to stifle the organization; founder Robinson referred to the suit as "a life and death struggle with elements of the socialist propaganda machine."
In a negotiated settlement, FR agreed to remove the posted articles, and paid these two newspapers $5,000 each. Neither party was awarded any damages, legal fees or costs. Today, other publishers, such as Condé Nast, have joined The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times in objecting to the posting of entire copyrighted articles. Users now post excerpts from such publishers (as allowed by fair use), and the site filters submissions against a watchlist of "banned" sources, by request of their webmaster or as a result of the lawsuit, as a precaution against future lawsuits.
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