Free Press Action Fund

Democracy and digital civil rights: continued highlighting the role of social media companies in the perpetuation of hoaxes, disinformation, and hate speech and the impact to society and especially to marginalized communities, women, and people of color. Urged congressional action to restrict data brokers' sale of our personal data, including to foreign governments. Lobbied for passage of the fourth amendment is not for sale act, which would prevent law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining subscriber or customer records in exchange for anything of value, to address communications and records in the possession of intermediary internet service providers. Organized a capitol hill briefing to highlight the crisis of election disinformation in non-english languages and to issue an urgent call for social-media platforms to beef up content moderation across all languages. Lead opposition to the stop terror-financing and tax penalties on american hostages act, a bill whose misleading name cloaked its true intention: undermining free speech and crushing dissent. Opposed controversial surveillance powers under section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. Continued to assert that instead of banning tiktok, lawmakers should pass a comprehensive federal privacy law that limits how all of these companies collect, store, analyze and sell our personal data. Joined an amicus brief arguing that the tiktok ban violates the first amendment by restricting americans' right to access information and media from abroad.

Future of journalism: continued to work in and with communities so people have a strong voice in how local news can be revived, strengthened and transformed. Promoted policies that will boost media ownership among women and people of color and create opportunities for local media owners who are committed to actually serving their communities. Defended a free press and urged protections for journalists. Opposed passage of the california journalism preservation act which would have rewarded the media conglomerates and hedge funds that have destroyed local news and made it harder for small community-centered newsrooms to survive. Expanded journalism policy work to the great lakes region, with an initial focus on illinois and wisconsin. Advocated for legislation that would support existing news outlets, sustain reporting jobs and invest in the future of media across multiple locations. Testified before a house committee about the need to safeguard public media and reject repeated efforts to defund it. Defunding threats don't just harm npr executives, they endanger the work of more than 1,000 local radio stations providing essential information to communities large and small.

Free press action fund conducts education, organizing and mobilizing efforts to support our members to advocate for better media, open technology and a healthier democracy. Areas of focus include network neutrality, affordable connections, online privacy, corporate and government surveillance, journalism, local news and civic information, public media, media consolidation and media diversity, and government transparency and accountability. In 2024 free press action continued to build a strong citizen movement for better media in the u.s by providing education, resources and networking opportunities for our members. Our members acted more than 98,000 times to sign petitions and make phone calls to their local, state and federal elected leaders. Free press action filed public comments, participated in several federal communications commission and federal trade commission proceedings and published recommended policies related to internet, journalism, public media and disinformation. We garnered more than 600 press hits in outlets including the associated press, the guardian, la opinin, mother jones, the new york times, the new yorker, nbc news, npr and the washington post. We secured financial support from 1,508 unique donors. Total program expenditures are detailed in the three core program areas above: