Free Press Action Releases 2024 Media and Technology Policy Platform

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Free Press Action released its 2024 Media and Technology Policy Platform to provide a guide for candidates and policymakers seeking to uphold their constituents’ rights to connect and communicate.

The positions in the platform — which include recommendations for closing the digital divide, protecting online privacy and reviving local journalism — are supported by Free Press Action members across the country, including people in every state and territory.

Read the Free Press Action 2024 Media and Technology Policy Platform in its entirety at this link.

A recent Free Press poll found that a significant and bipartisan majority of Americans want to ensure that their communications and internet activity are private, and do not want to see discrimination or intentionally false information online. A majority of Americans also said that “having more independent news outlets is important to stopping disinformation and is good for the health of our democracy.” Fifty-two percent of poll respondents also agreed that “We should increase public funding to create and expand local and independent news.”

The Free Press Action policy platform offers a point-by-point guide for elected officials to implement many of the reforms Americans say they want. Free Press Action is sending the platform to candidates for the presidency and Congress, and to every current member of the U.S House of Representatives and Senate.

Free Press Action General Counsel and Vice President of Policy Matt Wood said:

“People from across the political spectrum have told us in no uncertain terms that the current media and tech ecosystem is not meeting their civic-information needs or giving them the tools they need to connect and communicate freely and safely in a democracy. Our 2024 Media and Technology Policy Platform is Free Press Action’s response. It offers a roadmap for lawmakers to meet their constituents’ needs — not the needs of corporations and law-enforcement agencies that seek to monetize and control our data and expression.

“Free Press Action believes that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds power accountable and tells people what’s actually happening in their communities.

“The policy recommendations made in the platform recognize the central role media and tech play in our daily lives. A just, accurate and equitable media system is vital to the health of our communities, and essential to a functioning democracy.

“These prescriptions are bipartisan and widely held. Every elected official should favor policies that support a more open and inclusive media. This includes preserving Net Neutrality protections, achieving affordable internet access for all, securing media reparations for harms inflicted on Black people, challenging old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, ending unwarranted surveillance and data-driven discrimination, defending press freedom and strengthening local journalism.

“The Free Press Action policy platform will help guide lawmakers and regulators to advocate for the public interest on all these issues and more. We invite elected officials and candidates of every political stripe to join us in envisioning what a transformed media could look like and how technology could change people’s lives for the better.”