FIRE Welcomes Adam Steinbaugh to Staff

Adam Steinbaugh has joined FIRE as a Reporter and Program Officer for the Individual Rights Defense Program.

Adam is an journalist who, before coming to FIRE, practiced entertainment-focused civil litigation in California and authored an eponymous blog on law and technology. He covered a wide range of topics involving the First Amendment and the Internet. He later joined Popehat, and his commentary on internet and free speech issues has been featured in The Guardian, ArsTechnica, Channel 4 (UK), the CBC, and various other outlets.  

Adam, a Colorado native, now brings his talent for in-depth, investigative legal journalism to FIRE.

“I really like to dig into a story,” Adam said. “For a lot of my stories that I was writing, particularly about ‘revenge porn’ websites, I would do months-upon-months of research and digging up records and trying to figure out who exactly was running these websites, and how were they running these things.”

“I think people like seeing not only the reveal of this sort of underworld,” he said “but showing the work as to how I’m able to demonstrate, or prove, that this is what’s happening.”

Now at FIRE, Adam hopes to document the nature and living history of campus censorship.

“[I’m] trying to tell more of a tale about how this happens. That this is not just happening at far-flung college campuses—this is everywhere,” Adam said. “When we do hear about an instance of censorship, it’s just the tip of the iceberg of how much is actually happening.”

“I think that will encourage people to speak up and recognize what’s going on,” he said
“and maybe contact FIRE.”

Please join us in welcoming Adam to FIRE. And be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Adam’s work here on The Torch.