Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
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Newsjunkie.net is a resource guide for journalists. We show who's behind the news, and provide tools to help navigate the modern business of information.
Use of DataAccess Now is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and extending the digital rights of people and communities at risk around the world. Founded in July 2009 and registered as a US 501(c)(3), it operates from a headquarters in New York City with a distributed international team and legal entities in the United States, Belgium, Costa Rica, and Tunisia. Access Now pursues its mission through five integrated pillars: direct technical support (its 24/7 Digital Security Helpline), policy engagement, advocacy and campaigns, grassroots grant-making, and global convenings—most notably RightsCon, the world's leading annual summit on human rights in the digital age. The organization is currently led by Executive Director Alejandro Mayoral Baños, PhD, who took up the role at the start of 2025, succeeding co-founder Brett Solomon, who served in the role for fifteen years from 2009 to 2024. Access Now publishes its financials, independently audited accounts, and donor information transparently, and advocates for its own practices to match the transparency it demands of governments and corporations.
Access Now was born in a moment of political crisis and technological possibility. In June 2009, following Iran's contested presidential election, millions of Iranians took to the streets while the government moved aggressively to block internet access, censor content, and undermine digital communications. A small team of technologists — Brett Solomon, Cameran Ashraf, Sina Rabbani, and Kim Pham — mobilized to help people stay online and communicate safely. They disseminated video footage coming out of Iran during the crackdown, providing a window onto the unfolding events for the outside world, and worked to restore communications for those on the ground. Out of this emergency response came the founding conviction that shaped Access Now: that internet access and digital security are not technical niceties but prerequisites for political participation and the realization of human rights in the twenty-first century.
The organization was formally founded in California in July 2009 and grew rapidly, moving its headquarters to New York City at the beginning of 2022. Co-founder Brett Solomon also founded RightsCon, which held its inaugural edition in Silicon Valley in 2011 and has since grown into the field's defining convening. Solomon served as Executive Director and Board Secretary until 2024, overseeing Access Now's expansion into a global organisation with offices across four continents.
Digital Security Helpline. Access Now's 24/7 Digital Security Helpline, officially launched in 2013 (with emergency support operating informally since 2009), provides real-time technical assistance and guidance to civil society groups, activists, media organizations, journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders facing digital threats. Services include guidance on protecting against data and credential theft, responding to targeted cyberattacks, countering spyware campaigns, and navigating urgent digital security emergencies. The Helpline operates in nine languages and works in partnership with regional organizations and the CiviCERT network of civil society computer incident response teams to provide context-relevant support. Access Now explicitly supports local helpdesks embedded in communities, recognizing that proximity and language matter as much as technical expertise.
#KeepItOn and internet shutdowns. Launched in 2016, #KeepItOn is Access Now's global campaign against internet shutdowns — the intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications by governments to control the flow of information. Access Now defines a shutdown as any such disruption lasting more than one hour, and tracks them through the Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP), which combines remotely sensed network data with confirmation from news reports, local activists, official statements, ISPs, and measurement partners. The #KeepItOn coalition has grown to 345 organizations across 106 countries. Access Now publishes an annual report on internet shutdowns each spring: the 2024 report documented 296 shutdowns across 54 countries — at the time the worst year on record. The 2025 report, published in March 2026, documented 313 shutdowns in 52 countries, again setting a new record. The #KeepItOn data is used by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation as part of its Freedom of Information indicator for aid allocation decisions, and by academic researchers tracking censorship trends globally. Access Now has also brought legal actions during shutdowns in Cameroon, Indonesia, Togo, and Kashmir through partnerships with the Digital Rights Litigators Network.
RightsCon. RightsCon is the world's leading annual summit on human rights in the digital age, convening activists, technologists, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, philanthropists, researchers, and artists from over 150 countries. Founded by Brett Solomon, it first took place in Silicon Valley in 2011 and has since been held in Rio de Janeiro, Manila, Brussels, Toronto, Tunis, San José, and—for its 13th edition in February 2025—Taipei, Taiwan. RightsCon is a space for structured collaboration and strategy, bringing together the global digital rights community to respond to mounting threats and to build alliances across civil society, government, and the private sector.
Policy and advocacy. Access Now's policy team develops and promotes rights-respecting practices and laws at the intersection of technology and human rights, working with governments, corporations, and civil society across multiple jurisdictions. Active issue areas include privacy and surveillance, freedom of expression, AI and digital identification systems, net neutrality, encryption, cybersecurity law, and the regulation of digital platforms. Access Now has campaigned against mandatory encryption backdoors, pushed back against broad cybercrime legislation that can be weaponized against activists and journalists, and been an active participant in UN processes on digital rights, including through the Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network and the FOC's Task Force on Internet Shutdowns. Its advocacy leverages direct engagement with policymakers alongside public-facing campaigns and user mobilization.
Grassroots grant-making. Access Now provides flexible, grantee-driven funding to frontline and grassroots organizations working with communities most impacted by digital rights violations. Since its founding, Access Now has provided more than $2.6 million in grants to over 50 digital rights and anti-censorship organizations worldwide. The program prioritizes organizations that are embedded in and trusted by the communities they serve, and that understand local legal and political realities—recognizing that global policy change depends on the capacity of local actors to document, advocate, and litigate.
Access Now's full library of policy publications, reports, and advocacy resources is freely available at accessnow.org. Civil society organizations, journalists, activists, and human rights defenders facing digital threats can reach the 24/7 Digital Security Helpline at accessnow.org/help. Information about RightsCon—including past sessions and outcomes reports — is available at rightscon.org. The #KeepItOn annual reports and shutdown tracker data are published at accessnow.org/issue/internet-shutdowns. Access Now publishes an Express newsletter and action alerts for those wishing to stay informed and engaged. The organization's financials, independently audited accounts, and donor information are publicly available at accessnow.org/financials. Access Now accepts funding from foundations, development agencies, companies, and individuals, and publishes its donor list; it states that it does not accept funding that would compromise its organizational independence or influence its policy positions.
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