Our Vision
A world where rights defenders can work safely and effectively, and be protected from rapidly evolving technological threats that seek to silence, surveil, or undermine them.
Our Mission
Rapidly evolving technological challenges that threaten the work and security of activists, civil society, and journalists are transnational — and therefore require transnational solutions. Team CommUNITY’s mission is to connect and strengthen defender networks around the world confronting urgent digital threats, ensuring they have the capacity, knowledge, and cross-border solidarity needed to address these historic challenges and better protect themselves
More than half of our members are part of at-risk groups who experience acute digital threats and challenges, with a large representation from marginalized communities.
How We Do This
Team CommUNITY works as a community-based network focused on providing the services, community spaces, and capacity building programs needed to strengthen networks around the world who are working on the most urgent tech-related challenges impacting rights defenders, civil society, and journalists at the global, regional and local levels.
Issues our community works on include surveillance, censorship, disinformation, spyware, emerging issues like AI, alternative infrastructure, Internet governance, and others.
Our programming is co-designed with our community, with close attention to the most vulnerable, ensuring it reflects the real needs and goals of those experiencing the most acute forms of digital repression.
Our Impact
TCU serves as a central community node in the digital rights ecosystem — part community manager, part facilitator — ensuring that networks remain connected, informed, and resilient. Our innovative work has:
Strengthened global resilience of civil society operating under increasing digital repression by providing onboarding ramps, education, and networking opportunities to access critical resources and knowledge, enabling more sustainable civic action in restrictive digital environments
Shifted the field toward more collaborative, community-led approaches that prioritize cross-border and discipline collaboration,
Reduced fragmentation in the field by acting as a central connective node across regions and disciplines
Delivered ongoing knowledge-sharing, and threat intelligence exchanges that strengthen response capacity
Integrated security, psychosocial well-being, and community infrastructure into a unified support model for network spaces that has been replicated throughout the ecosystem, leading to safer, healthier and more inclusive ecosystem for all.
Delivered ongoing trainings, knowledge-sharing, and threat intelligence exchanges that strengthen digital security and response capacity
“The CommUNITY Team cultivate communities with care. They have been essential in the Internet Freedom space to grow, connect and support a diverse network of human rights defenders, and the people that support them.”
Gaba Rodriguez, Project Manager The Tor Project
Our Services and Programs
For over a decade, Team CommUNITY has been instrumental in expanding and supporting the digital rights field, while improving its health, diversity, and equity. Our programming is intentionally nimble and adaptive, enabling us to evolve in step with the needs on the ground, and ensuring our work remains impactful, useful, and relevant to those we serve. Currently, our work consists of:
“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. The lack of it has had a real negative impact on the work of digital rights and digital security networks throughout the world.” - Berhan Taye, Internews
Global Gathering
Our in-person event brings together over 1,000 frontline rights defenders from over 144+ countries to Portugal every year.
The gathering’s humane design, unique outdoor venue, and robust security and safety protocols have been celebrated for fostering authentic trust-building and catalyzing impactful coalitions.
More than an event, it provides a restorative environment, a celebratory spirit, and weaves both the cross-border and cross-discipline solidarity needed to address historic, transnational tech and security challenges. Highlights:
Historically, more than 50% of participants identify as women or gender nonconforming, while over 51% identify as part of a marginalized or vulnerable community.
TCU’s robust safety and security protocols, including a comprehensive code of conduct process, have been celebrated for their effectiveness, and adapted by numerous organizations worldwide, while being
More than 800 organizations and networks are represented, spanning both disciplines and borders.
Equity Fund
Our Equity Fund ensures that participation is accessible to those most impacted by digital threats and operating in truly resource-limited environments.
The fund provides one-to-one security and visa support, mentorship, and travel and lodging assistance. It also enables us to hire equity- and trauma-informed mental health specialists who help ensure our community spaces are safe by strengthening and creating needed tools, practices, and offering therapy to those that need it the most.
By removing financial, logistical, and safety barriers, the Equity Fund democratizes access to the GG, ensuring communities most affected are contributing to the conversations shaping responses and solutions to digital threats.
Has directly helped over 800 individuals from at-risk individuals from resource-limited environments step into leadership roles, while advancing their important work.
During the height of the pandemic, we launched a psychosocial program that provided over 120 defenders with direct therapy and wellness support.
Information Services
We maintain a digital rights job board, a weekly newsletter, a wiki-based knowledge center, and a growing collection of primer articles — all of which form a critical information and communications infrastructure for the digital rights field.
Together, these resources help defenders stay current on developments and emerging threats (both within the field and in the broader world), access opportunities, and build the knowledge needed to navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Just as importantly, for newcomers, these tools make complex topics accessible, strengthening the overall resilience and capacity of rights defenders worldwide, particularly those facing the most acute forms of digital repression and targeted attacks.
Our Job Board and Weekly Digital Rights Newsletter are among some of the most popular tools in our field, used by over 10,000 people on a yearly basis
Capacity Building and Community Weaving
Throughout the year, we strengthen the ecosystem by hosting gatherings, knowledge-share and capacity building workshops, as well as collaborative community spaces that surface threat intelligence, new research, emerging community-led projects and tools, and evolving community needs.
We also actively connect defenders to the resources, partners, and expertise they need, while helping newly affected at-risk communities onboard into the broader field. We also connect open source security and privacy technologies to affected users to improve the tools and strategies coming out of the field. Through this connective work, we consistently weave durable and powerful cross-border and cross-discipline coalitions working on addressing digital threats.
We also have hosted loved fellowship and mentorship programs, which have been critical tools to help increase the leadership of underrepresented communities in the broader field.
Over 2,000+ organizations and projects across 144 countries have improved their strategies and amplified their impact through our support.
We have directly supported over 3,000 communities and groups, connecting them to the resources and people they need to overcome challenges related to their work and protection.
More than 5,000 defenders and journalists connected with resources and tools
We were named in Mozilla’s 2020 Internet Health Report as one of the Internet’s healthy moments during the height of the pandemic.
1,000+ civil society organizations and projects across 144 countries have improved their strategies and amplified their impact through our support.
Our Equity Fund has directly helped over 800+ defenders from marginalized communities step into leadership roles to advance important digital rights and Internet freedom work.
Our Code of Conduct and security approach for community spaces, now used by hundreds of organizations, has strengthened ethical guidelines across the digital rights movement of what a healthy culture and event looks like.
Our educational workshops and materials, and onboarding ramps have benefited over 100,000 civil society and journalism defenders.
Our Job Board and Weekly Digital Rights Newsletter are some of the most popular information services in our field, helping over 10,000 people a month stay updated on community news and jobs in the field.
The Global Gathering, our flagship event, is one of the largest trusted spaces for digital rights collaborations globally. It convenes over 1,000 digital defenders from 800+ organizations, representing 144 countries and spanning civil society, journalism, tech, and policy ecosystems. 51% of our members are from the Global Majority and 54% identifying as women or gender non-conforming.
TCU’s concierge service that has directly supported over 3,000 organizations, communities and groups, linking them to resources, expertise, and partnership, and helping them overcome specific challenges related to their work and protection.
TCU Service Branch
Our community and security expertise for hire
We provide organizations with consultation services in the areas we know really well:
Holistic security and safety protocols for networks, events, community strategies, and communications work.
Open space facilitation that build trust between stakeholders AND live translation in numerous languages.
Psychosocial processing circles lead by mental health professionals
Tap into our numerous security consultants that can help you with digital security training, organizational security, and more.
“Team 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.”
Our Values
1. Collaboration and Cross-Border Solidarity Over Competition
We work to reduce fragmentation in the field by connecting people, highlighting shared struggles, and creating collaborative spaces where trust and knowledge-sharing can flourish. Digital threats are transnational in scope and therefore require transnational responses rooted in collective action, shared wisdom, and insights drawn from diverse disciplines and communities.
2. Joy as Resistance
Our community spaces are intentionally joyful, restorative, and celebratory. This approach fuels resilience, strengthens trust, and helps communities imagine new possibilities even in the face of escalating challenges.
3. Community-Led Practice Prioritizing the Most Impacted
Those closest to digital harms hold the wisdom to address them. We center the leadership, strategies, and lived experiences of frontline communities, supporting approaches that are grounded in their realities.
4. Care and Protection as Core Infrastructure
Safety, equity, psychosocial well-being, and trauma-informed support are not add-ons; they are the foundation of strong movements. We design all spaces — including the GG — with rigorous safety, mental health support, and inclusive protocols to ensure people can participate fully and confidently.
5. Nimbleness and Responsiveness
The threat landscape evolves rapidly — so must we. Our programming is designed to adapt to emerging needs, community feedback, and shifting geopolitical realities to remain relevant and impactful.
6. Building Ecosystem Health
We prioritize the long-term strength, diversity, and sustainability of the digital rights field. This includes supporting emerging voices, building coalitions, onboarding new communities, and ensuring the ecosystem has the tools and networks it needs to thrive.
Our Home
Team CommUNITY is currently housed at ARTICLE 19, an independent human rights organization.