Who is Accessnow.org?

We are a diverse group of individuals united by a passion for human rights and the common vision of using technology to help people realize their rights to free speech and political assembly. We were thrust together by the Iranian election, each offering our time and skills to keep Iranians online.

Now, the organisation is giving birth to a new global movement for digital freedom - thousands of us around the globe committing to ensure that all of us, regardless of frontier or political opinion, have access to the internet.

AccessNow provides real-time support, working around the clock to help our network bypass censors and relay citizen media to news organizations and social media sites. Through partnerships with key players such as TOR and Psiphon, we deliver anti-circumvention technologies and training for our network of activists on the ground.

And, to make sure change happens on an institutional level, we connect digital activists with those in the technology industry and work towards influencing decision makers on key internet governance issues - keeping the concerns of human rights defenders working in cyberspace at the forefront.

Acccessnow.org has the support of:

• Avaaz.org, a global political web movement which has rapidly grown into the largest online activist community in the world at 3.4 million subscribers in 193 countries
• Moveon.org, national progressive organization, with over 5 million members online
• Witness.org which uses video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations
• Blue State Digital providing Internet strategy and technology for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, the American Red Cross, Save Darfur Coalition, the Sundance Film Festival, the National Geographic Society, and many others. 
• GetUp! GetUp is an independent, grass-roots Australian community advocacy organisation giving citzens opportunities to get involved and hold politicians accountable on important issues.
• The Tor Project, an open source and free software project enabling Internet anonymity by thwarting network traffic analysis.

Our International Advisory Board, which provides the organization with strategic advice and connections, includes:

• Professor Ron Deibert - Director of the Citizen Lab, co-founder of the OpenNet Initiative and Psiphon censorship circumvention software project
• Peter Gabriel – Grammy Award winning international musician and co-founder of Witness and the Elders
• Chris Hughes - Co-founder of Facebook and Director of Online Organizing for Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign
• Lawrence Lessig – Professor of Law at Harvard and Founder of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society
• Andrew Lewman – Executive Director of the Tor Project
• Craig Newmark – Founder of Craigslist
• Tattu Mambetallieva Emilbekovna – Director of the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy
• Eli Pariser - Former Executive Director and Board President of MoveOn.org
• Ricken Patel – Co-founder and Executive Director, Avaaz.org
• Andrew Rasiej - Founder of Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
• Joe Rospars - New Media Director for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign and Founding Partner of Blue State Digital
• Mehdi Saharkhiz - Iranian activist and blogger whose YouTube channel is an important video resource for Iran's post-election unrest. His father, Isa Saharkhiz, was arrested and tortured in the aftermath of the election and is being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison.
• Ethan Zuckerman – Senior Researcher, Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Co-Founder of Global Voices Online, GeekCorps, and Tripod.com