Our authentically diverse community comes together joyfully to build solidarity other across regional and professional lines, and include:
Frontline activists and movement builders
Technologist building tools and strategies that circumvent surveillance and censorship
Civil Society and grassroots organizations
Security experts and digital security trainers
Journalists facing threats
Governments and tech companies
Researchers and policy advocates
Our focus has always been to strengthen trust, solidarity, and knowledge-exchange between defenders around the world, in a way that is meaningful and speaks to their needs.
TCU’s Impact at-a-Glance
Team CommUNITY (TCU) mission is to foster and nurture healthy, resilient, and inclusive digital communities across the globe that are fighting surveillance, censorship, and other issues sitting at the intersection of human rights and technology. We achieve this by offering diverse services, community spaces, and initiatives co-designed by our global community.
Routinely credited with being one of the most important community center and force in growing the size of digital rights community, shifting the culture to be healthier and solidarity focused, and helping diverse organizations from around the world advanced their goals.
Our Equity Fund and capacity-building initiatives have directly supported over 500+ individuals from marginalized communities into leadership positions, as well as standardize DEI best-practices. As an example, our Code of Conduct and accompanying process, is used by hundred of organizations.
Seen as one of the only projects that successfully brings together technologists with at-risk users in a meaningful way. Our work has improved the development of over 500 circumvention technology tools, and security/safety projects.
Our flagship event, The Global Gathering, attracts over 1,200 defenders from 144+ countries, where 65% are living in the Global Majority, and 57% identify as women or gender non-conforming, and over 850+ diverse organizations are represented. However, everyone in attendance benefits, resulting it be the birthplace of diverse collaborations, collectives, and projects across regions and disciplines.
Our information services are considered the most popular in the field, and include a Job Board, attracting over 10,000 unique visitors and month, and weekly community newsletter, with over 7,000 subscribers.
Our nimble and feminist focused management style, allows us to quickly shift efforts to address the most important needs on the ground. As an example, from 2020 to 2022 we established a successful psychosocial program that provided over 120+ defenders with weekly one-to-one and group therapy sessions. We also created a toolkit with complimentary consultation services, Digital Justice House, to support managers alleviate the impact the pandemic and regional instability was having on their teams. As a result, in 2020 Mozilla Internet Health Report named as one of the 100 healthier internet movements for our ability to quickly mobilize around the needs of our community.
Our concierge service has support over 1,000 communities around the world address specific challenges the face, connecting them to the resources, tools, skills, and contacts they need. This has resulted in everything from communities receiving the rapid response to address digital attacks, to emerging grassroots organizations securing funding; to de-escalating unhealthy community dynamics impacting specific networks.
Post pandemic, our virtual community spaces have become integral to connecting networks and groups throughout the world. Our Mattermost instance has over 3,000 highly active members, with numerous private and public channels; Our community initiatives, such as our VPN Community Initiative, have become instrumental to mobilizing and advancing diverse Internet security and safety goals and research.
Testimonials
It's rare nowadays to find truly committed people willing to genuinely support others in their endeavours for a greater purpose. Team CommUNITY helped me connect with individuals and orgs across the globe, share knowledge and exchange ideas to build collaborative networks.
Maya Ninova, Ph.D.
”As a technologist I get so much out of this event. I get to network directly with end-users; I get exposed to new digital rights challenges in various contexts; and increase collaboration, and bond with others!”
Nick Merrill, Calyx Institute
“The team members behind CommUNITY have been foundational forces to grow the Internet Freedom and digital rights space. They serve communities with humbleness and care, thoughtfulness and leadership, and are brilliant at centering and amplifying voices that need to be heard. Most importantly, they’re not afraid of a challenge, and continue to pave the way in shaping radical discourse and community-building.”
Sarah Aoun, Open Technology Fund
“Drawing from a combined decade of experience in the digital rights community, the CommUNITY team has honed their unique approach to knit bridges between multiple sectors in open-source tech and grass-roots organizing. This team brings expertise rarely achieved in this space, primarily because they have participated at the global cross-sections of these sectors; and are in the strongest position to lead any organization towards their goals of engaging their audience with more inclusivity and impact.”
Harlo Holmes, Director of Digital Security, Freedom of The Press Foundation
“We are currently conducting research on the internet freedom ecosystem and overwhelmingly, people who we surveyed and interviewed indicated that the spaces they felt the safest to collaborate and work together are Team CommUNITY's events, especially the in-person gathering.”
Berhan Taye, Internews
TCU was the first space to acknowledge how caste-oppressed people face cyberattacks and disinformation and helped us find tools and pathways for resilience and healing! Without this crucial space, we would not have a crucial space for strategizing and winning rights in insurmountable situations. Thank you!
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Equality Labs
“TCU has been essential in the Internet Freedom space to grow, connect and support a multicultural and diverse network of human rights defenders, and the people that support them. They cultivate communities with love and care. Gaba Rodriguez, The Tor Project
t is the space that welcomed most of us from the global majority into digital security space. I finally felt like I belonged here, and this has been echoed by plenty others who have access through community.”
Xeenarh Mohammed, TIERs, Nigeria
“I felt a sense of belonging in spaces that Team commUNITY has created over the years. The solidarity, sisterhood, and selfless sharing of knowledge among the folks brought together by TCU has been truly remarkable to witness Nighat Dad, Digital Rights Foundation