Free Press Action: Fighting for Your Rights to Connect and Communicate

Note from the CREDO team: This July, Free Press Action is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Free Press hold media and tech companies accountable for corrupting policymaking and amplifying bigotry, conspiracy theories and disinformation.

Read this important blog post from Craig Aaron and Jessica J. González, co-CEOs of Free Press Action, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this July.

Free Press Action fights every day to make media and technology work for people. The organization has been at the forefront of efforts to challenge Big Media and Big Tech for nearly two decades, from campaigns to save Net Neutrality and stop illegal spying to taking on Fox News, Facebook and armies of industry lobbyists.

Our rights to connect and communicate have never been more important — or more endangered. Disinformation, distrust and despair have never been higher, and our media system is one of the main reasons why. Free Press Action is pushing to transform media and tech, pursue racial justice and make policies that actually help people and improve their daily lives.

Free Press Action makes sure your voice is actually heard by decision-makers in Congress and at federal agencies, calls out corporations that abuse their power, and creates innovative policy solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing our economy, democracy and society. 

Your vote in July will help Free Press Action’s team of advocates, researchers and organizers to:

Protect Your Most Private Data: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, it’s become clear that law enforcement, government officials and others could weaponize our personal online data to investigate, harass and take legal action against people seeking abortions. Free Press Action’s new #HandsOffMyData campaign is confronting these abuses: The organization is working with lawmakers to pass data-privacy legislation and is pressuring tech platforms to keep individuals’ locations, searches and data safe. Free Press Action is pushing for privacy legislation and Federal Trade Commission regulations that include strong civil-rights protections.

Fight Hate and Disinformation Online: Hate and disinformation threaten public health, safety, racial justice, human rights and fair elections. To push social-media companies to combat hate and disinformation, Free Press Action leads campaigns like the Stop Hate for Profit ad boycott, which inspired more than 1,100 major companies to suspend advertising on Facebook. Free Press Action also co-founded Change the Terms — a coalition of grassroots and civil-rights groups — that calls on tech platforms to adopt model policies against hateful and deceitful content. Leading up to November’s midterm elections, Free Press Action has united dozens of civil-rights groups through #FixTheFeed, a campaign to get social-media companies to stop amplifying content that threatens election integrity.

Restore Net Neutrality and Close the Digital Divide: Free Press Action is the group that first made a national issue of Net Neutrality — the rules that safeguard the free and open internet from discrimination and interference by internet service providers. The group is working to repair the damage the Trump administration did to these fundamental protections, advocate for progressive appointments to the Federal Communications Commission, and make sure everyone has affordable and reliable internet access. Most recently, Free Press Action pushed the Biden administration and Congress to commit $65 billion to close the digital divide — and it’s working to ensure these public funds actually go to the people and communities that need it most.

Get Local Communities the News and Information They Need: Free Press Action works across the country to reinvent local journalism and build strong connections between newsrooms and the communities they’re supposed to serve. The organization pushes for public funding and innovative journalism projects focused on serving and representing local communities. For example, in New Jersey, Free Press Action dreamed up, campaigned for and passed the Civic Info Bill, which created an independent trust to support local-news coverage – the first new public funding for high-quality journalism created in a generation, and a model for other states.

Reimagine and Build a Media System That Represents All of Us: Free Press Action works to reimagine the future of media and technology, design new policies and structures, and develop the political and cultural organizing strategies to actually get there. The group’s projects include Media 2070, which explores how media and tech have harmed Black people and considers what reparations should look like. This visionary project is just one example of how Free Press Action’s work is grounded in a commitment to racial justice and building a true multiracial democracy. 

The support of CREDO members ensures that Free Press Action can hold politicians and policymakers accountable, amplify underrepresented voices in the halls of power, and help mobilize millions at moments when public pressure can make all the difference. CREDO activists have been important allies in many of Free Press Action’s campaigns and your vote of support will help power the organization’s work at this crucial time. Thank you!