Countering digital authoritarianism.
Fostering digital civil liberties.

Under the cloak of countering “misinformation,” governments, NGOs, academics, and Big Tech now often collaborate to suppress information, ideas, and opinions expressed by everyday people. Simultaneously biometric ID systems are being implemented to control people’s movements, and digital currencies threaten citizen’s basic right to economic independence.

In a strange twist, many of those who once defended our digital rights and a “free and open Internet” now lead this new authoritarianism. Recent revelations show civil society leaders partnering with governments and Big Tech to promote top-down information controls, with some even seeking to break encrypted private messaging. During the Covid-19 crisis, rather than defending and protecting human rights from government abuse, many in the digital rights field cheered on and even collaborated to dismantle our rights 
and freedoms.

liber-net combats this new authoritarianism in order to reestablish free speech and civil liberties as the default standard for our networked age. Through journalism, research, media-making, events and network building, liber-net provides a platform to create alliances and change the conversation.