Fight for the Future

Critics of Fight for the Future say the organization partners with like-minded groups to distort the truth and stands against free-market principles. ³

Initiatives

Opposing Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

Fight for the Future opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill intended to combat internet-based intellectual property theft. ⁴ SOPA would have expanded U.S. law enforcement’s ability to combat online copyright infringement and the online trafficking of counterfeit goods. Proponents said the legislation would not only protect intellectual property, but also save jobs and industry revenue, particularly from foreign websites. Supporters included the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Association of Attorneys General, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO union federation, and multiple labor unions.  ⁵

Opponents of SOPA, such as Fight for the Future, claimed the bills threatened innovation and free speech, giving law enforcement too much power to block access to certain websites. It organized online petition drives against the bill and several websites participated in temporary blackouts on January 18, 2012. ⁶ That led Jonathan Lamy, spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, to tell the Boston Globe that “it’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users and arm them with misinformation.” ³

Net Neutrality

Fight for the Future organized the “Battle for the Net” campaign, which resulted in 3.7 million people contacting the Federal Communications Commission in support of net neutrality rules, which would prevent Internet service providers from charging customers more for bandwidth-intensive services than for low-bandwidth services. During the Obama administration, then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (D) passed a regulation regulating internet service providers as public utilities, which Fight for the Future supported. His Trump administration successor as FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, sought to reverse the rule; Fight for the Future’s campaigned in opposition to Pai’s repeal effort ⁷

Permission to Sell Consumer Data

Fight for the Future also opposed a congressional effort to overturn an FCC rule approved under former Chairman Wheeler that would have required Internet service providers to get permission from consumers before selling their data. Those ISPs said the regulation put them at a disadvantage compared to providers like Google and Facebook that face less stringent regulation from the Federal Trade Commission. ⁸ After Congress voted to overturn the FCC rule, Fight for the Future crowd-sourced the funding of billboards in the districts of then-U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and John Rutherford (R-FL) and then-Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Dean Heller (R-NV), listing the amount of donations they had received from the telecommunications industry and criticizing them for their votes. ⁹

Direct Messaging Encryption

Fight for the Future launched an advocacy campaign demanding social media platforms incorporate default end-to-end encryption for direct messaging, with their website claiming that such encryptions can “protect private messages” ¹⁰ from “police surveillance, stalkers, your creepy ex, and identity thieves who might hack into your messages.” ¹⁰

Fight for the Future Launched campaign after Facebook turned over direct messages between a mother and her 17-year-old daughter in Nebraska to local authorities in July 2022. Obtained through a search warrant, the messages show that in April 2022, the mother instructed her daughter, whom was 23-weeks pregnant at the time, on how to administer a “self-managed abortion” ¹¹ Nebraska state law in force at the time forbade abortion procedures after 20 weeks, and in July 2022 both were charged with “allegedly removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body and concealing the death of another person.” ¹¹

Afterwards, a spokesperson from Meta responded to the story by stating “Nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement…mentioned abortion. The warrants concerned charges related to a criminal investigation and court documents indicate that police at the time were investigating the case of a stillborn baby who was burned and buried, not a decision to have an abortion.” ¹¹  As of December 2022, both women are awaiting trial. ¹¹

In July 2023, the daughter was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to a felony charge of removing, concealing, or abandoning a deceased human body. In September 2023, the mother was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to removing, concealing, or abandoning the same deceased body, performing an abortion beyond 20 weeks, and false reporting. ¹²

Pro-Abortion and LGBT Activism

In 2025, Fight for the Future released a statement calling for the defeat of legislation to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Fight for the Future claimed both pieces of legislation would “destroy abortion speech online, and lifesaving LGBTQ+ resources.” The group also claimed that an end to Section 230 would infringe upon the freedom of activists who use the internet to organize and plan public protests and demonstrations. Lia Holland, who at the time was the campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future, argued the proposed Section 230 repeal is “bald-faced betrayal” of “activists, abortion patients, and the LGBTQ+ community” by Democrats. ¹³

No Kings Partnership

Fight for the Future is listed as a partner on the No Kings website, the protest organization and movement that began in 2025 in opposition to the second Trump administration and its policies. ¹⁴

Youth Social Media Policies

In May 2026, Fight for the Future opposed legislation passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives that would require age verification to protect minors from harmful content online. Fight for the Future director Evan Greer claimed to agree with the legislation’s intent to protect minors but argued an age verification process endangers youth privacy online. In response to the bill’s passage, Fight for the Future organized a protest outside the Massachusetts House building. ¹⁵

Fight for the Future Education Fund

Fight for the Future Education Fund is the charitable sister organization to Fight for the Future. The education fund maintains several initiatives aimed at advocating in favor of net neutrality and online privacy. The group also opposes several technological features it blames on “Big Tech,” including facial recognition software, car-tracking technology, and Amazon’s palm-scanning technology. ¹⁶

Fight for the Future Education Fund advocates for similar initiatives to Fight for the Future, including greater online privacy for women seeking abortion. In 2022, the group wrote an open letter to Facebook urging the platform to stop sharing private direct messages related to abortion with law enforcement authorities. ¹ The education fund wrote a similar letter to Google urging the platform to stop sharing location information with law enforcement to execute warrants against women who violate abortion laws. ¹⁷

During the Biden administration, Fight for the Future Education Fund launched a project to support the then-Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan. The education fund’s “KEEP LINA KHAN” webpage claimed that big tech companies were attempting to pressure the administration to remove Khan for pursuing legal action against large tech companies, including Meta and Amazon. Fight for the Future Education Fund claimed Khan’s critics opposed her efforts to protect online privacy, expand antitrust laws, and implement artificial intelligence (AI) oversight through regulations. ¹⁸

Leadership

As of 2026, Sarah Roth-Gaudette was the executive director of Fight for the Future. She first joined Fight for the Future in 2015 as the chief operating officer and was promoted to executive director in 2018. She has previously worked for the Public Interest Network, MoveOn.org’s PAC, and Work for Progress. ^{19  20}

Holmes Wilson was a co-founder of Fight for the Future and was serving as the president of the organization’s board of directors as of 2026. He was also a co-founder at Miro, Open Congress, and Amara, and has worked for the Free Software Foundation. ¹⁹

Tiffiniy Cheng was a co-founder of Fight for the Future and was serving as the treasurer of the organization’s board of directors as of 2026. She was also a co-founder at Open Congress, Miro, and A New Way Forward. ¹⁹

Financials

In 2025, Fight for the Future reported $1,096,511 in total revenue, $898,868 in total expenses, and $2,801,666 in total assets. ²¹ From 2021 to 2022, Fight for the Future received $501,168 in grants from the Defi Education Fund. ^{22  23} From 2014 to 2015, Fight for the Future received $230,000 in grants from the Sixteen Thirty Fund.  ^{24  25} In 2012, Fight for the Future received a $250,000 grant from the Proteus Action League (PAL). ²⁶

In 2025, Fight for the Future’s 501(c)(3) sister organization, Fight for the Future Education Fund, reported $2,345,978 in total revenue, $1,702,332 in total expenses, and $2,280,950 in total assets. ²⁷ From 2023 to 2024, Fight for the Future Education Fund received $575,000 in grants from the Defi Education Fund. ^{28  29}