Happy new Taskmaster series day! At least we have this bright spot.
Peter Senftleben 🏳️🌈
@peseditorial.bsky.social
299 followers 98 following 277 posts
Freelance fiction editor (esp. romance, mystery/thriller/suspense, horror, gay). Book nerd. Misanthrope. www.peseditorial.com
![TO: newyork@relx.com
ATTN: RELX CEO Erik Engstrom, Nick Luff (CFO), and Paul Ashton Walker (Chair)
Re: Immediate Termination of contracts between RELX subsidiaries and ICE
February 9th, 2026
Dear Erik Engstrom, Nick Luff, and Paul Ashton Walker,
We are some of the authors that make events like BookCon—run by your subsidiary, ReedPop—possible. Another of your subsidiaries, LexisNexis, has a $22.1 million dollar contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), supplying them with the data they need to surveil and terrorize our neighbors, friends, and families.[1] We condemn any collaboration with ICE and call for the immediate termination of all contracts between RELX and ICE.
ICE has a twenty-two year history of discrimination and abuse against immigrant communities. Under the current administration, their efforts have escalated in both violence and visibility—enabled by their partners in big data, including LexisNexis.[2]
RELX is a multinational corporation worth $40 billion, of which events like BookCon are only a small fraction. Our power is limited. But BookCon advertises itself as a place where "fantasy meets reality,"[3] and the reality is that RELX is profiting from mass terror against communities of color, including the murder of eight people this year alone. The fantasy is that a bunch of readers and authors could ignore it; we know a villain when we see one.
We, as authors, intend to honor our immediate commitments to BookCon and to our readers. If RELX chooses to renew their current contract with ICE–which expires on February 28, 2026[4]–we will be forced to reevaluate our association with all future ReedPop events.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5c65uqakb4kmnss5zgdsfego/bafkreicnq6khcuo2nkyef76ghhzvaikkm4vojnlasyxpuemjnrtmni4koa)
