MuckRock is a United States–based

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

which assists anyone in filing governmental requests for information through the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966 * F ...

(FOIA) and other public record laws around the United States, then publishes the returned information on its website and encourages journalism around it.

History

MuckRock was founded by Michael Morisy and Mitchell Kotler, graduates of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. The site's beta version went online in May 2010, and was part of the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

''s GlobeLab incubator program. MuckRock was granted a

non-profit status by the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

in June 2016. On June 11, 2018, MuckRock announced they would be merging with DocumentCloud. In 2016, the FOIA Machine project merged with MuckRock. FOIA Machine is a service that helps make FOIA requests for free. FOIA Machine was a separate organization hosted by

The Center for Investigative Reporting The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in San Francisco, California. CIR was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization. It subsequently grew into a multi ...

and funded by the

Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

, the Reynolds Institute of Journalism, and a crowdfunding campaign. The two projects decided to merge due to their shared goals and past partnerships. MuckRock agreed to continue providing FOIA Machine for free.

Operation

Filing requests for information through the

and other public record laws around the United States has been described as confusing and tedious, despite the intent that the process be public and the service available to all American citizens. MuckRock partially automates the process with an interface designed to make the filing of requests easier. Also, MuckRock acts as a middleman for processing the requests, so when a user makes a request through MuckRock, it is the staff of MuckRock who themselves make the request. When MuckRock makes the request, they note and timestamp it on their website as proof of it being made. When a reply comes to the request, MuckRock publishes and timestamps it openly so that everyone can see the reply and when it was made.

Information shared

In 2010, MuckRock received a notice that the government had sent MuckRock information about the

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal government program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income persons to help them maintai ...

which was secret and that MuckRock must cease publishing it or its staff would face fines and jail time. The state later said that it would not jail MuckRock staff. The

Boston Police Department The Boston Police Department (BPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1854, the BPD is the oldest municipal police department in the United States. It is also the 20th largest law enforce ...

suspended an

automatic number plate recognition Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit ...

program because of privacy concerns raised after a MuckRock request. MuckRock made numerous requests to various United States state and federal agencies regarding their work with

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washing ...

. The response from the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

was a bill for $270,000 to fulfill the request. MuckRock's request to the

New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

for their guidebook on responding to FOIA requests was denied due to it being a confidential document.

Lawsuit

In June 2014 MuckRock sued the CIA under the

for "consistently ignoring deadlines, refusing to work with requesters, and capriciously rejecting even routine requests for what should be clearly public information". After a great deal of stalling, the CIA eventually capitulated in 2017 and put 25 years of declassified documents online. The documents were from the CIA's CREST database.

Partners

The

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

has made public records requests with MuckRock.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.muckrock.com 2010 establishments in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations Classified documents Freedom of Information Act (United States) Freedom of information in the United States Information sensitivity Internet properties established in 2010 Non-profit organizations based in Massachusetts Non-profit organizations based in the United States Public records United States federal government administration legislation