Who's Behind the Book Bans? by Citizen Codex

Across the United States, schools and libraries are facing mounting pressure from conservative groups to remove books they deem to be 'inappropriate'. These challenges often target content addressing themes such as sex, gender, LGBTQ+, racism, violence, and the lives of marginalized people. Such censorship not only restricts access to diverse perspectives but also deprives marginalized communities from having their stories told and shared in broader society.

In this story, we investigated the impact of lead book-banning group Moms for Liberty on nearly 400 counties across the country by linking data from PEN America with information scraped from the group's 300+ Facebook pages. Additionally, we looked into the tax forms of the three largest book-banning organizations to examine how much money is being funneled into these efforts.

We use scrollytelling to spotlight popular books that have been frequently banned and to map the geographic spread of Moms for Liberty's influence. Through our analysis, we found that Moms for Liberty has been highly effective in driving hundreds of book bans in states with more conservative policies. Furthermore, the group is actively targeting school districts in blue and purple states, aiming to influence school boards and policymakers to enact book bans aligned with their agenda.

With further threats to the Department of Education and public education at large, book bans are likely to remain an ongoing challenge for librarians, educators, and communities fighting to protect the right to read.