Financial exclusion has become a tool of censorship.

Transaction Denied: Big Finance’s Power to Punish Speech is now available in bookstores. Get your copy. 

The Financial Censorship Project is an independent research project created by Rainey Reitman to research and examine the speech impacts of financial exclusion. Through interviews with people who have had their bank accounts closed, their credit cards cancelled, and their payments blocked, this project will show an ongoing pattern within the United States to shutter dissenting voices through financial exclusion. It will also shed light on the corporate-government collaborations that make this possible.

Through these stories, this project will ask the question: is financial censorship upholding American values of a free and open society?

Financial services are a crucial tool for existing in our modern society. People and organizations that lose financial accounts often find themselves scrambling to access the funds they need to pay their bills, including paying staff members or covering website costs. When finance companies choose to shut off certain groups of people, it can have the effect of silencing them.

This project will produce:

• A nonfiction book detailing stories of financial censorship and recommendations for addressing it—now available.
• A set of recommendations published regarding best practices to minimize financial censorship as well as potential regulatory responses.

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About the Author:

Rainey Reitman

Rainey is an experienced digital rights advocate who has blogged about financial exclusion and its impact on speech for over ten years.