Get involved

Resources & how to take action

The maps on this site show where surveillance, age-verification, censorship, and the data-center buildout are spreading. This page is the other half: what to actually do about it. Almost every fight here is decided locally -- in a city council chamber, a county commission, a school board, or a state legislature -- which means it is winnable, and you do not need to be an expert to start.

Get involved where you live

Pick your issue and tell us where you are. You will get who to contact, when they meet, and a message you can copy -- adapt it and send it today.

1Pick your issue

2Where are you?

State Town or city (optional)

3Your action plan

Choose an issue above

Your plan will appear here

1Who to contact

Look them up -- use whichever works for you

2When they meet

Agendas post a few days ahead and list how to sign up for public comment -- the part that moves votes.

3What to say

A starting point -- edit it to sound like you, then copy.

Copied

4Who's already on it

Start here: the short version

Most of what you see on these maps is a decision someone made -- a contract a city signed, an ordinance a county passed, a bill a legislator filed, a book a board pulled. Decisions can be questioned, paused, and reversed. The campaigns that win rarely wait for a perfect federal law. They treat the camera contract, the data-center rezoning, or the library policy like any other public decision: they find out the facts, find one official willing to ask the question out loud, and show up in person when it counts. That is the whole playbook. The rest of this page is the detail.

Jump to the FOIA request builder -- pick your state and topic, get a ready-to-send letter ↓

Find your local government

This is the single most useful thing on this page. The people who vote on these decisions are almost always local, and they are reachable. Start here:

City & county Find & contact your local officials USA.gov's official lookup for city, county, and town officials by ZIP or map -- your city council, county commission, mayor, and city manager, with contact details. State Find your state legislators Open States maps your state house and senate members and tracks the bills they file -- the level where most surveillance and age-check law is written. Federal Find your members of Congress For national measures -- federal moratorium bills, surveillance funding riders, and oversight letters. All levels Look up every rep at once Common Cause returns your representatives from city to Congress in one search, with contact details.

Once you have the right body, find its meeting calendar and agendas on the city, county, or district website (search "[your town] city council agenda"). Agendas are usually posted a few days ahead and list how to sign up for public comment -- the part that matters most.

Take action by issue

Each map on this site has its own front line. Here is where to start on each, and who is already doing the work.

Surveillance & license-plate readers

If your town has Flock or other ALPR cameras, the contract is a procurement decision your council can end. We have a full, plain-language removal guide.

Age verification & digital ID

Most age-check and digital-ID rules are written in statehouses. Tell your state legislators what you think before the next bill moves, and ask how your data would be protected.

Speech & book bans

Book removals usually run through a school board or library board -- bodies that take public comment and answer to local elections. Challenges can be contested, and reported.

Data centers

Data centers are sited through local zoning and utility decisions. Rezonings, water permits, and rate cases are all points where the public can intervene.

Key organizations

National groups with research, legal muscle, and organizing toolkits you can lean on. Most have a way to find or start a local chapter.

Electronic Frontier FoundationDigital rights: surveillance, age verification, encryption, free speech. Index on CensorshipGlobal free expression -- publishes censored writers and tracks threats worldwide. Fight for the FutureFast-moving campaigns and organizing tools on tech and rights. EPICPrivacy research, FOIA work, and policy on surveillance and data. Restore The FourthLocal chapters organizing against mass surveillance. DeFlockThe crowdsourced ALPR map and a directory of local chapters. PEN AmericaTracks book bans and defends the freedom to read and write. Unite Against Book BansThe ALA's public toolkit for defending books locally. NCACNational Coalition Against Censorship -- report and fight censorship. EveryLibraryHelps communities win library funding and beat book bans. Data Center WatchTracks community opposition to data-center projects nationwide. Food & Water WatchLeads the push for a federal data-center moratorium.

Three things to watch for

The quiet switch. A win on paper can be hollow if the same capability moves somewhere less visible -- surveillance shifted to another vendor, a data center re-filed under a smaller footprint, a book "relocated" rather than restored. Removing the brand name is not the goal; removing the harm is. Ask what replaces it.

Vague promises. "We'll address community concerns" is not a commitment. Push for specifics in the public record: a date, a dollar figure, a binding term, a vote. If it is not written down, it did not happen.

Reversals. Contracts get re-signed, cameras get reactivated, books get re-challenged, moratoriums expire. More than one town canceled only to find the thing quietly back. Confirm the outcome held, and keep checking.

This page is informational and general. Contracts, public-records rules, and the procedures of councils, boards, and legislatures vary by place, so confirm the specifics for your own community. We link external organizations as starting points; we do not control or endorse everything on their sites.

Found something we should map?

Help keep the maps honest

If you know of a contract, a local fight, a bill, or a dispute that belongs on one of these maps, send it over with a source and it will be reviewed.

Submit a sourced article →

The two tools

Rather than reprint the forms here, they live on their own pages so they stay short and uncluttered:

Build a records request -- pick your state and topic and it writes the request, cites your state's public-records statute, and tells you which office to send it to. Different topics produce genuinely different requests: a data-center request asks about water permits, abatements and nondisclosure agreements; an age-verification request asks about ID retention and vendors.
Write your officials -- pick the topic and who you are writing to, from city council to Congress, and it drafts the letter with specific asks they can actually answer.