MuckRock is a United States–based 501(c)(3)non-profit organization which assists anyone in filing governmental requests for information through the Freedom of Information Act (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.[2][dead link] The site's beta version went online in May 2010, and was part of the Boston Globe's GlobeLab incubator program.[3] MuckRock was granted a 501(c)(3) non-profit status by the IRS in June 2016.[4] On June 11, 2018, MuckRock announced they would be merging with DocumentCloud.[5]
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 and funded by the Knight Foundation, 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.[6]
Operation
Filing requests for information through the Freedom of Information Act 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.[7] MuckRock partially automates the process with an interface designed to make the filing of requests easier.[7][8][9] 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.[10] When MuckRock makes the request, they note and timestamp it on their website as proof of it being made.[10] 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.[10]
In 2010, MuckRock received a notice that the government had sent MuckRock information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program which was secret and that MuckRock must cease publishing it or its staff would face fines and jail time.[11][dead link][12] The state later said that it would not jail MuckRock staff.[13][dead link]
MuckRock made numerous requests to various United States state and federal agencies regarding their work with Booz Allen Hamilton.[16] The response from the Federal Bureau of Investigation was a bill for $270,000 to fulfill the request.[16]
MuckRock's request to the New York City Police Department for their guidebook on responding to FOIA requests was denied due to it being a confidential document.[17]
Lawsuit
In June 2014 MuckRock sued the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act for "consistently ignoring deadlines, refusing to work with requesters, and capriciously rejecting even routine requests for what should be clearly public information".[18][19]
After a great deal of stalling, the CIA eventually capitulated in 2017 and put 25 years of declassified documents online.[20] The documents were from the CIA's CREST database.[21]
