Make Florida Blue

Openly progressive. Rigorously sourced. Our opinions are labeled as opinions. Our facts link to primary documents. Check our work.

High risk material

Please do not send this to us yet

If disclosing what you have could cost you your job, your safety, or your freedom, we are not the right place for it today. This is a deliberate decision, not a missing feature.

Why we decline it

This site is one person, not a news organization. We do not have lawyers on retainer, we do not have a legal defense fund, and we do not have the infrastructure that established outlets use to protect sources.

We cannot promise to protect your identity from a court order. Accepting your material anyway, knowing that, would be asking you to take a risk on our behalf under a false impression. We would rather lose the story than get you hurt.

We are not going to store it, read it, and then tell you we could not help. We are telling you before you upload anything, which is the only point at which the warning is worth anything.

Where to take it instead

These organizations have the source protection infrastructure we do not.

  • An established news organization. Most major outlets run secure tip lines built for exactly this, with legal teams behind them. Look for a newsroom's "securely contact us" or SecureDrop page rather than emailing a reporter directly.
  • A lawyer. If your job or your liberty is exposed, talk to an employment or whistleblower attorney before you talk to any publisher, including a good one. Legal advice first, publication second.
  • The relevant inspector general or ethics office. For state matters, the Florida Commission on Ethics takes complaints. Agencies have their own inspectors general. These routes have statutory protections that a website cannot offer you.
  • The Government Accountability Project or a whistleblower support organization. They exist to advise people in exactly your position, before disclosure rather than after.

If it is not actually high risk

If, reading the above, you think your material is public information or merely awkward rather than dangerous, go back and send it. Most submissions are in that category and we want them.

Back to the submission form

When this changes

We hope to build better infrastructure for this. If we do, this page will say so and the option will open. Until it does, this page is the honest answer.