Welcome to the April 2024 edition of the Free Press Update, our newsletter recapping as much of our work from the last month as we can fit into one email. Let’s get into it:

What You Need to Know About the Return of Net Neutrality

Earlier this month, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced her plan to bring back the Net Neutrality rules and reinstate the agency’s authority to act as a strong advocate for a user-powered open internet.

The agency will vote on April 25 on whether to reclassify high-speed-internet access services under Title II of the Communications Act. Restoring Title II will once again allow the FCC to safeguard Net Neutrality and hold companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon accountable to internet users across the United States — meaning it can step in to stop price gouging, protect user privacy, promote broadband competition and eliminate hidden junk fees and other scams. Learn more about this important decision in the latest blog post from Senior Director of Strategy and Communications Timothy Karr.

What Journalists Can Learn from Global Repair Movements

Free Press Reparative Journalism Program Manager Diamond Hardiman has spent the last year and a half researching how journalism can address — and heal from — its history of anti-Blackness. The latest entry in the Reparative Journalism video series explores what journalists can learn from movements responding to centuries of violence, theft and oppression — like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created after the fall of apartheid.

To learn more check out Diamond’s blog post and watch the powerful video.

Tell Tech Companies to Protect Users and Democracy in 2024!

Last week, a Free Press-led coalition of more than 200 civil-society organizations, researchers and journalists sent a letter to the top executives of the leading social-media platforms that calls on them to take specific steps to protect democratic elections worldwide in 2024.

The letter, which was sent to top executives at Discord, Google, Instagram, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Rumble, Snap, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube, urges these companies to make six distinct interventions to keep online platforms safe and healthy in 2024.

Add your name to our petition urging Big Tech companies to protect their users and our democracy from the toxic spread of disinformation.

Why the TikTok Ban Is a Terrible Idea

Depending on your perspective, TikTok is either a hub for hilarious videos or a tool of a Chinese Communist Party intent on harvesting the personal data of everyone in the United States.

It’s the latter belief system that drove at least some votes when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that would force TikTok owner ByteDance to divest its holdings if it wants to keep the app available in the United States.

Here’s the problem: The legislation is built on misconceptions about how TikTok operates, and it would do nothing to protect people’s privacy or blunt the widespread manipulation users face across platforms. Read Free Press Editor Amy Kroin’s explainer on what’s happening and why it matters.

A View from the Field

Check out the latest updates from the field as Free Press and Free Press Action staffers work alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a more just and equitable media system. Below are snippets from our latest View from the Field blog — you can read the entire post!

• Policy Counsel Jenna Ruddock took part in a virtual Tech Civil Society Roundtable that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission hosted. The discussion explored the collection, use and sharing of people’s sensitive data.
• Campaign Manager Rose Lang-Maso spoke during a panel discussion at Duke University’s The Power Shift Summit: Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Tech Policy. Topics ranged from the threats that algorithmic discrimination and disinformation pose to elections to how to advocate with marginalized people on Capitol Hill to what it’s like for women who hold intersectional identities to work in the tech-policy space.
• Co-CEO Jessica J. González participated in a panel discussion at the “Diálogo Series: A Deepening Journalism Crisis in L.A.” CALÓ News and the Latino Media Collaborative hosted the event.
• Reparative Journalism Program Manager Diamond Hardiman participated in the panel discussion “Reparations for Black Media” at the Black Media Futures Conference. The conversation explored the challenges Black media outlets have long faced, strategies to secure sustainable and equitable funding, and the moral and political case for media reparations.

The Free Press Feed

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Thank you for reading! The info here represents only a small fraction of what Free Press and Free Press Action are doing every day to fight for your rights to connect and communicate. With so many urgent fights on the horizon — against disinformation and hate, and threats to our online privacy — will you make a gift today? We rely on contributions from grassroots donors like you because we don't take a cent from business, government or political parties.

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Photo credits: Net Neutrality advocates protesting outside a NYC Verizon store. © Timothy Karr; TikTok image: original photo by Flickr user Nordskov Media