Transaction Denied: Big Finance’s Power to Punish Speech will be hitting book stores in two weeks.
Here are what some of the early readers and reviewers are saying:
Financial institutions—often at the behest of government officials—are freezing bank accounts, cancelling credit cards, and denying payment processing to penalize people for controversial speech and politics, according to this hard-hitting debut exposé. … Reitman explores the Kafkaesque character of debanking measures: customers usually get no notice or appeal and often are put on blacklists that trash their credit ratings. Her cogent recommendations include requiring transparency about accounts that are being closed and legislation to ban financial penalties for legal speech and political actions…[I]t’s an incisive call for action against the collusions of big money and big government. Publisher’s Weekly
“Through powerful examples and a thorough review of the law, Reitman gives a critical but balanced assessment of the underappreciated power that financial institutions wield in democratic participation.”
—Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law, computer science, and public policy, Harvard University; cofounder, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
“A powerful case that financial censorship and surveillance are among the most foundational human rights issues of our time.”
—Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future
“An indispensable guide to a secret and powerful form of censorship in the United States. Rainey Reitman will enlighten you, then show you how to fight back.”
—Annalee Newitz, author of Stories Are Weapons
“Both a storyteller and an advocate, Rainey exposes hidden systems of power that shape our choices, our speech, and, ultimately, our society.”
—Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Repression doesn’t always look like handcuffs and raids. In Transaction Denied, Rainey Reitman shows how big finance has become a gatekeeper of speech, wielding enormous power to punish activists and journalists without most people ever realizing it. Reitman exposes financial censorship as a hidden weapon of political repression—and a front line we can’t afford to ignore.”
—Will Potter, author of Green Is the New Red
“In her timely and necessary book, Reitman illuminates the shocking and widespread censorship exerted by the American banking system, details how Orwellian financial surveillance and control has become the norm, and makes a powerful case for why we must push for change if we want to preserve freedom and privacy in the 21st century.”
— Alex Gladstein Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation
“Rainey Reitman has written an eye-opening page turner that also offers practical clarity about urgent steps we must take to stop censorship in the financial system. If you care about free speech and the future of American democracy, you need to read this book now.”
— Rebecca MacKinnon, author, Consent of the Networked