Truth Teller

What is TruthTeller.Life?

TruthTeller.Life is an Extinction Rebellion-inspired initiative to help accelerate global awareness of the Climate & Ecological Emergency such that mass consensus exists among the general public for the type of urgent and scalable measures needed to prepare for a rapidly changing world. To achieve this, TruthTeller.Life exists to help shift a decades-old story about a family of invisible greenhouse gases, into a new and urgent narrative about civilisation’s present-day vulnerability to near-term shocks, posed by extreme weather and ecological collapse. TruthTeller.Life believes the most powerful messengers for this vital, untold story are those working inside the very system that’s taking us over the cliff. By anonymously disclosing unpublished information, and giving courage to others to do the same, the truths they expose will help drive urgent and planetary-wide change.

What is the point of TruthTeller.Life? Why not ask people to just leak to a journalist?

TruthTeller.Life believes those working inside key sectors of the global economy (agriculture, food, energy, water and insurance, to name but a few) have important truths to share with us all. These courageous TruthTellers need to know how important they are, even if the information they possess may not, by itself, seem particularly impactful. TruthTeller.Life wants them to know that no piece of the puzzle is too small. It’s only when these pieces are brought together that the big picture will emerge, and humanity can finally affect meaningful change. TruthTeller.Life will invite influential organisations and individuals, that share TruthTeller.Life’s vision, to amplify this message to those working inside the system. There are of course other ways for TruthTellers to expose their truths, and they can choose whatever means feels right for them. TruthTeller.Life provides an easy, safe and anonymous way to disclose information to a global network of journalists who, by working in collaboration, will be able to connect the dots.

What is the relationship between Extinction Rebellion and TruthTeller.Life?

TruthTeller.Life is an independent initiative that has been supported by Extinction Rebellion in the form of desk space, voluntary living expenses and media & messaging support. This support will continue for the medium-term such that TruthTeller.Life can carry out its outreach strategy, gather support from multiple sources and become freestanding. In parallel - and independently of TruthTeller.Life - Extinction Rebellion may choose to organise actions in support of the aims of TruthTeller.Life

What is the ICIJ?

The ICIJ is a unique organisation. A U.S.-based nonprofit, with its own international reporting team, as well as a global network of reporters and media organisations who work together to investigate the most important stories in the world. Its network encompasses hundreds of the best investigative reporters from more than 90 countries and territories. Through this network it partners with more than 100 media organisations, from the world’s most renowned outlets, including the BBC, the New York Times, The Guardian and the Asahi Shimbun, to small regional nonprofit investigative outlets.

What is the relationship between TruthTeller.Life and the ICIJ?

The ICIJ is a fully independent organisation. It means TruthTeller.Life and Extinction Rebellion will never know whether anyone visiting the TruthTeller.Life online gateway went on to contact or share information with the ICIJ.

How will TruthTeller.Life keep sources safe?

TruthTeller.Life is a gateway. It has no analytics installed, and there are no cookies or tracking of who you are or what you do. TruthTeller.Life selected the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to securely receive disclosure and work with sources if need be. This recommendation to TruthTellers is based on discussions held with the ICIJ about its methods and its record on source protection. Since being established in 1997, the ICIJ has never revealed any of its confidential sources.

Is TruthTeller.Life asking people working for the UK government to break the Official Secrets Act?

TruthTeller.Life is not encouraging anyone to commit a criminal act. What is being provided is an online gateway for people to anonymously disclose information they believe we would all benefit from knowing. TruthTeller.Life does not have any knowledge about, or control over, who visits the online gateway or acts on its recommendation.

What type of information is TruthTeller.Life hoping might be disclosed?

TruthTeller.Life exists to help reveal the civilisation’s present-day vulnerability to near-term shocks, posed by extreme weather and ecological collapse. The founders of TruthTeller.Life have a particular interest in attracting disclosure about essential sectors of the global economy built upon just-in-time supply principles. These include the supply of food, water and energy. For example, could a courageous TruthTeller reveal what our supermarkets are doing, or indeed, not doing about the near-term risk of disruption to the just-in-time supply of food from global markets? Likewise, people working in the global reinsurance industry are studying the future economic impacts of extreme weather. A TruthTeller from this industry may be able to show us a very different world from the one we take for granted today.

What about other people with information about the future who might want to disclose?

While we believe the truth about the vulnerability of the global system is the big, untold story, we would encourage anyone with unpublished information that would shed light on the Climate & Ecological Emergency to share it via TruthTeller.Life. In particular, we would also encourage anyone working in organisations that are attempting to conceal or obfuscate the truth about the dire state we are in, to share what they know about attempts to mislead the public and impede action.

Who is behind TruthTeller.Life?

TruthTeller.Life developed out of conversations between a group of people volunteering with Extinction Rebellion, about the need to tell a nearer-term and more personal story behind the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Of this group, former journalist and communications strategist Marc Lopatin and journalist Zoë Blackler, went on to co-found TruthTeller.Life and can be contacted at voices@truthteller.life

How to use private browsing.

Using a private browsing window will mean that there is no record of your internet activity left on your computer once the window is closed. This will allow you to visit the ICIJ website with some confidence that no one will be able to see this in your browsing history.

However, be careful because work place computers might still keep a track of websites visited on central servers. Always use a personal device.

Below are images of where to find the option to open a private browsing window on various computers, devices and browsers.

Use a Private Window with Tor on Brave.

However, the best option is to use Brave. A relatively new browser that helps prevent tracking. A Tor window will also leave no trace with your internet service provider and is even untraceable by GCHQ and the NSA. See brave.com