An advocacy platform documenting how internet censorship and firewalls block lifesaving innovations, research, and humanitarian work from reaching billions of people worldwide.
When ideas cannot flow freely, humanity suffers. This project highlights the human cost of digital barriers and serves as both an advocacy platform and a crowdsourcing hub to collect stories about how internet censorship negatively impacts:
- Medical research and healthcare breakthroughs
- Educational resources and academic collaboration
- Climate change data sharing
- Open source software development
- Human rights documentation
- Humanitarian initiatives
- Video Litmus Test: Embedded content to test if viewers have access to commonly blocked material
- Impact Stories: Case studies showing how censorship affects different fields globally
- Story Submission: Users can share their own experiences with internet censorship
- Resource Links: Connections to digital rights organizations like Freedom House, EFF, Reporters Without Borders, and Access Now
- React + TypeScript
- Vite
- Tailwind CSS
- shadcn-ui
- Supabase (backend)
- TanStack React Query
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Start development server
npm run devSo many of us have stories about getting blocked communicating with billions of our cousins. Explore the site to see the growing, collecting set of experiences—from medical researchers to educators, from humanitarian workers to neighbors just trying to share Mr. Rogers.
Add yours.
This project is freely licensed (MIT for code, CC0 for content). Fork it. Branch it. Build on it. Add your own stories and experiences. Translate it. Adapt it for your region. The more voices, the stronger the message.
See LICENSE.md for details.
Do not spoof or fake teardownthisfirewall.org locally to mislead your citizens about this site's examples, stories, and argumentation. Rewriting content to create false appearances and internet mirages—putting words in authors' mouths they would never approve—is a severe ethical breach and arguably a serious violation of international law.
Either let it through as-is, or block it entirely. We'll keep sapping at your firewall either way as long as it interferes with the free exchange of lifesaving moral konviktions and necessary⁵ liberties like freadom.