HakiFedha: Bitcoin & Privacy for Civil Society in Africa

Video: How to use tech to outsmart dictators, by Leopoldo López: www.ted.com/talks/leopol...

Russia's new state app is called Max. Over the past 18 months, every major mobile carrier in Russia has been required to preinstall it. Research published this week found it amounts to a backdoor. Tens of millions of users have no choice. The government reads the messenger.

Documenting how financial repression, bank account freezes, and civic chokepoints are used against civil society across the continent. 🔗 aftt.hakifedha.org

What happens when authoritarian governments can cut off your access to the financial system? You need another way forward.

Since 2023, 25 Tech Policy Press fellows from 11 countries have helped advance a pro-democracy movement in tech and tech policy. We’re now accepting applications for our 2027 cohort. Learn more and apply by September 24!

Aytac Tapdig, a reporter for Meydan TV, has been in pretrial detention in Azerbaijan since December 2024. She has a serious nasal condition. She has used 80 bottles of nasal spray in prison. Azerbaijani authorities are refusing her access to a specialist or a diagnostic scan.

It's like the "James Bond" of messaging apps for activists, human rights defenders, whistleblowers, and journalists in high-risk evironments.

2026 Global Gathering 2026 themes announced: Surveillance & Censorship Alternative Infrastructure & Digital Sovereignty Emerging & Urgent Tech Challenges: Disinfo, AI, Platform Accountability, Internet Shutdowns Civil Society Reflections on Tech Reg Ecosystem Security, Sustainability, & Health

For people living through conflict, protests, and political crises, an internet shutdown can mean life-threatening risk. Our new special shares the real stories of people affected by shutdowns around the world. Explore: www.accessnow.org/sound-of-sil...

Audit request sent to Cure53. If they take it, GhostWire becomes one of the few anonymous closed-source messengers independently verified by a top security firm. No timeline yet. Just a sent email and a held breath.

A man gave border agents his phone password. The phone wiped itself. He is now charged with federal evidence destruction. GrapheneOS's duress password did exactly what it was designed to do. That is the problem. @legaleagle.tv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2rokxux5cU

🇧🇫 #BurkinaFaso: The authorities have intensified restrictions on civil society, political parties and independent media while critics face arrests, enforced disappearances and forced conscription. 🔎 Country added to our latest Watchlist: web.civicus.org/WLQ326

GhostWire Desktop is live on Linux. V0.4.88. AppImage format: no install, no package manager, no root required. Download it, make it executable, run it. That is everything. Verify the SHA-256 hash before you run it. The site checks it locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Africans don’t want military rule. They want generals to rid them of bad leaders, and then return to the barracks. But once in power, military leaders often have other ideas.

Informed by his research on Venezuela, political scientist Philipp Lutscher writes that DDoS attacks on news organizations censor primarily through friction: they raise the cost of accessing and distributing information for both readers and journalists.

GhostWire gets no funding and has no investors. It is built by one person who cares deeply about privacy for people who need it most: journalists, women in dangerous situations, and humanitarians working in hostile environments. Built with passion. Driven by principle.

#BURKINAFASO: Democracy has been shelved as the junta dismantles political parties, silences civil society and shuts out international accountability. As repression deepens, the international community must act before this model spreads. Read more web.civicus.org/Burkina-Faso #CIVICUSLens

"Financial agency is a human right," says @anita.link: "This newly edited documentary explores seven human rights through the lens of Bitcoin and asks what changes when people can hold and transfer value without asking a bank or government." www.youtube.com/watch?v=17az...

A VPN that does not know you. Email that stops existing when you close the tab. Payments that cannot be traced back. A network with no single point. A messenger with no company behind it. That is what privacy actually looks like. Because privacy is a right not a feature.

#KENYA: Protests that began against the Finance Bill evolved into a nationwide movement against poor governance. Felix Kiprono from Odipo Dev explains how Gen Z and local communities organised and changed civic participation. Read more: web.civicus.org/Felix-Kiprono #CIVICUSLens

In conversation with Owen Clegg on BBC World Service, HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein explores how AI can empower human rights defenders, from countering authoritarian regimes to helping democracy advocates like Lilian Tintori quickly build tools for their communities in dire need.

Liz Orembo argues AI risk is relational—it "does not reside in code alone." A model can pass every frontier safety test and still cause harm when deployed into different languages, institutions and social realities. That matters, in particular, for Africa.

Last year, Burkina Faso forced all NGOs to move their funds to a state repository. When a state controls where civil society keeps its money, independence dies. We founded HakiFedha to change that by equipping orgs with permissionless money. ✊ 🔗 hakifedha.org

Thrilled to have an opportunity to speak about my new book #ChillingEffects with @justinhendrix.bsky.social, Editor in Chief of @techpolicypress.bsky.social Listen in below!

I think “A Progressive’s Case For Bitcoin” is an incredible read. Check it out. A Progressive's Case for Bitcoin: A Path Toward a More Just, Equitable, and Peaceful World a.co/d/iuAkdab

The conversation around AI often assumes one outcome: more power for dictators. But what if AI could instead become one of the most powerful tools for those resisting them?

Today, governments can see who buys what, who pays whom, and who donates to which cause. But they cannot easily trace or confiscate Bitcoin. The digital currency offers a lifeline to democratic movements operating in the most repressive places. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

How does Bitcoin enforce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Educator, author, and Bitcoin advocate Anita explains how permissionless and censorship-resistant money protect individual freedom, property rights, financial freedom, and free expression: hakifedha.org/docs/resourc...

Chat and send money in a single app: radar.chat

In 2025, Burkina Faso ordered NGOs to transfer all funds from commercial banks to a state repository overnight. When financial systems are centralised, your mission exists at the stroke of a pen. We built HakiFedha to equip civil society with censorship-resistant money & privacy: hakifedha.org