IBI Started When Three Friends Discovered a Shared Concern
IBI started in March 2021 with a clear goal: to be non-partisan champion for free speech, free press, and due process related to free speech and free press. These freedoms are essential for the country to build a path toward fairness and progress which are the key themes of IBI.
The co-founders Brian Jackson, Mike Matthys and John Quinn all grew up in Iowa – two have known each other since middle school and all three have known each other since the early 1980s.
Among the co-founders, John is the one who has been active in various political groups including work in Democratic candidate campaigns, Climate Reality and American Promise. “I joined IBI with Mike and Brian after observing my friends, including a well-respected journalist, getting blocked on Facebook for posting articles on how other countries like South Africa are using well-known medicines to help people with Covid or Lyme disease. It seems these platforms may be following their own science rather than allowing users to post scientific information from abroad.” John Quinn on why he cofounded IBI.
Brian has been an insider within Google and Facebook engineering organizations for years.
“Both companies are full of smart people, but I don’t think either of them truly want the responsibility of judging what content should or should not be blocked. I decided to help co- found IBI after being concerned by media handling of election stories, and later became further concerned to see a well-known author have one of his books removed from Amazon without so much as an explanation.” Brian Jackson on why he co-founded IBI.
Mike has been a long-time Silicon Valley executive with many years of experience living and working overseas. “Living in several overseas countries has given me a sense of what press censorship and speech self-censorship looks like. After seeing leaders in Congress write a letter to regulated TV companies like Comcast and AT&T, I recognized this as an effort at government censorship of certain TV channels with whom these leaders of Congress disagreed on political issues. Talking with many friends who are primarily left-center or liberal, I found most people in Silicon Valley recognized this was not good for the country – regardless of whether they believe those TV channels are good or bad.” Mike Matthys on why he co- founded IBI.
IBI is focused on free speech, free press, and due process related to free speech and free speech in order to ensure the country continues on a path toward fairness and progress. Fairness and progress are the key themes for IBI.
