One of our colleagues has been the target of a sustained campaign of harassment for the past several months. We have decided to publish this statement to publicly declare our support for her, for every member of our organization, and for every member of our community who experiences this harassment. She is not alone and her experience has catalyzed us to action. This statement is a start.

The Tor Project works to create ways to bypass censorship and ensure anonymity on the Internet. Our software is used by journalists, human rights defenders, members of law enforcement, diplomatic officials, and many others. We do high-profile work, and over the past years, many of us have been the targets of online harassment. The current incidents come at a time when suspicion, slander, and threats are endemic to the online world. They create an environment where the malicious feel safe and the misguided feel justified in striking out online with a thousand blows. Under such attacks, many people have suffered — especially women who speak up online. Women who work on Tor are targeted, degraded, minimized and endure serious, frightening threats.

This is the status quo for a large part of the internet. We will not accept it.

We work on anonymity technology because we believe in empowering people. This empowerment is the beginning and a means, not the end of the discussion. Each person who has power to speak freely on the net also has the power to hurt and harm. Merely because one is free to say a thing does not mean that it should be tolerated or considered reasonable. Our commitment to building and promoting strong anonymity technology is absolute. We have decided that it is not enough for us to work to protect the world from snoops and censors; we must also stand up to protect one another from harassment.

It's true that we ourselves are far from perfect. Some of us have written thoughtless things about members of our own community, have judged prematurely, or conflated an idea we hated with the person holding it. Therefore, in categorically condemning the urge to harass, we mean categorically: we will neither tolerate it in others, nor will we accept it among ourselves. We are dedicated to both protecting our employees and colleagues from violence, and trying to foster more positive and mindful behavior online ourselves.

Further, we will no longer hold back out of fear or uncertainty from an opportunity to defend a member of our community online. We write tools to provide online freedom but we don't endorse online or offline abuse. Similarly, in the offline world, we support freedom of speech but we oppose the abuse and harassment of women and others. We know that online harassment is one small piece of the larger struggle that women, people of color, and others face against sexism, racism, homophobia and other bigotry.

This declaration is not the last word, but a beginning: We will not tolerate harassment of our people. We are working within our community to devise ways to concretely support people who suffer from online harassment; this statement is part of that discussion. We hope it will contribute to the larger public conversation about online harassment and we encourage other organizations to sign on to it or write one of their own.

For questions about Tor, its work, its staff, its funding, or its world view, we encourage people to directly contact us (Media contact: Kate Krauss, press @ torproject.org). We also encourage people join our community and to be a part of our discussions:

https://www.torproject.org/about/contact

https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation#MailingLists

In solidarity against online harassment,

Roger Dingledine

Nick Mathewson

Kate Krauss

Wendy Seltzer

Caspar Bowden

Rabbi Rob Thomas

Karsten Loesing

Matthew Finkel

Griffin Boyce

Colin Childs

Georg Koppen

Tom Ritter

Erinn Clark

David Goulet

Nima Fatemi

Steven Murdoch

Linus Nordberg

Arthur Edelstein

Aaron Gibson

Anonymous Supporter

Matt Pagan

Philipp Winter

Sina Rabbani

Jacob Appelbaum

Karen Reilly

Meredith Hoban Dunn

Moritz Bartl

Mike Perry

Sukhbir Singh

Sebastian Hahn

Nicolas Vigier

Nathan Freitas

meejah

Leif Ryge

Runa Sandvik

Andrea Shepard

Isis Agora Lovecruft

Arlo Breault

Ásta Helgadóttir

Mark Smith

Bruce Leidl

Dave Ahmad

Micah Lee

Sherief Alaa

Virgil Griffith

Rachel Greenstadt

Andre Meister

Andy Isaacson

Gavin Andresen

Scott Herbert

Colin Mahns

John Schriner

David Stainton

Doug Eddy

Pepijn Le Heux

Priscilla Oppenheimer

Ian Goldberg

Rebecca MacKinnon

Nadia Heninger

Cory Svensson

Alison Macrina

Arturo Filastò

Collin Anderson

Andrew Jones

Eva Blum-Dumontet

Jan Bultmann

Murtaza Hussain

Duncan Bailey

Sarah Harrison

Tom van der Woerdt

Jeroen Massar

Brendan Eich

Joseph Lorenzo Hall

Jean Camp

Joanna Rutkowska

Daira Hopwood

William Gillis

Adrian Short

Bethany Horne

Andrea Forte

Hernán Foffani

Nadim Kobeissi

Jakub Dalek

Rafik Naccache

Nathalie Margi

Asheesh Laroia

Ali Mirjamali

Huong Nguyen

Meerim Ilyas

Timothy Yim

Mallory Knodel

Randy Bush

Zachary Weinberg

Claudio Guarnieri

Steven Zikopoulos

Michael Ceglar

Zachariah Gibbens

Jeremy M. Harmer

Ilias Bartolini

René Pfeiffer

Percy Wegmann

Tim Sammut

Neel Chauhan

Matthew Puckey

Taylor R Campbell

Klaus Layer

Colin Teberg

Jeremy Gillula

Will Scott

Tom Lowenthal

Rishab Nithyanand

Brinly Taylor

Craig Colman-Shepherd

A. Lizard

M. C. McGrath

Ross MacDonald

Esra'a Al Shafei

Gulnara Yunusova

Ben Laurie

Christian Vandrei

Tanja Lange

Markus Kitsinger

Harper Reed

Mark Giannullo

Alyssa Rowan

Daniel Gall

Kathryn Cramer

Camilo Galdos AkA Dedalo

Ralf-Philipp Weinmann

Miod Vallat

Carlotta Negri

Frederic Jacobs

Susan Landau

Jan Weiher

Donald A. Byrd

Jesin A.

Thomas Blanchard

Matthijs Pontier

Rohan Nagel

Cyril Brulebois

Neal Rauhauser

Sonia Ballesteros Rey

Florian Schmitt

Abdoulaye Bah

Simone Basso

Charlie Smith

Steve Engledow

Michael Brennan

Jeffrey Landale

Sophie Toupin

Dana Lane Taylor

Nagy Gabor

Shaf Patel

Augusto Amaral

Robin Molnar

Jesús Cea Avión

praxis journal

Jens Stomber

Noam Roberts

Ken Arroyo Ohori

Brian Kroll

Shawn Newell

Rasmus Vuori

Alexandre Guédon

Seamus Tuohy

Virginia Lange

Nicolas Sera-Leyva

Jonah Silas Sheridan

Aaron Zauner

Christophe Moille

Micah Sherr

Gabriel Rocha

Yael Grauer

Kenneth Freeman

Dennis Winter

justaguy

Lee Azzarello

Zaki Manian

Aaron Turner

Greg Slepak

Ethan Zuckerman

Pasq Gero

Pablo Suárez-Serrato

Kerry Rutherford

Andrés Delgado

Tommy Collison

Dan Luedders

Flávio Amieiro

Ulrike Reinhard

Melissa Anelli

Bryan Fordham

Nate Perkins

Jon Blanchard

Jonathan Proulx

Bunty Saini

Daniel Crowley

Matt Price

Charlie McConnell

Chuck Peters

Ejaz Ahmed

Laura Poitras

Benet Hitchcock

Dave Williams

Jane Avriette

Renata Avila

Sandra Ordonez

David Palma

Andre N Batista

Steve Bellovin

James Renken

Alyzande Renard

Patrick Logan

Rory Byrne

Holly Kilroy

Phillipa Gill

Mirimir

Leah Carey

Josh Steiner

Benjamin Mako Hill

Nick Feamster

Dominic Corriveau

Adrienne Porter Felt

str4d

Allen Gunn

Eric S Johnson

Hanno Wagner

Anders Hansen

Alexandra Stein

Tyler H. Meers

Shumon Huque

James Vasile

Andreas Kinne

Johannes Schilling

Niels ten Oever

David W. Deitch

Dan Wallach

Jon Penney

Starchy Grant

Damon McCoy

David Yip

Adam Fisk

Jon Callas

Aleecia M. McDonald

Marina Brown

Wolfgang Britzl

Chris Jones

Heiko Linke

David Van Horn

Larry Brandt

Matt Blaze

Radek Valasek

skruffy

Galou Gentil

Douglas Perkins

Jude Burger

Myriam Michel

Jillian York

Michalis Polychronakis

SilenceEngaged

Kostas Jakeliunas

Sebastiaan Provost

Sebastian Maryniak

Clytie Siddall

Claudio Agosti

Peter Laur

Maarten Eyskens

Tobias Pulls

Sacha van Geffen

Cory Doctorow

Tom Knoth

Fredrik Julie Andersson

Nighat Dad

Josh L Glenn

Vernon Tang

Jennifer Radloff

Domenico Lupinetti

Martijn Grooten

Rachel Haywire

eliaz

Christoph Maria Sommer

J Duncan

Michael Kennedy Brodhead

Mansour Moufid

Melissa Elliott

Mick Morgan

Brenno de Winter

George Scriban

Ryan Harris

Ricard S. Colorado

Julian Oliver

Sebastian "bastik" G.

Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara

Koen Van Impe

Kevin Gallagher

Sven "DrMcCoy" Hesse

Pavel Schamberger

Phillip M. Pether

Joe P. Lee

Stephanie Hyland

Maya Ganesh

Greg Bonett

Amadou Lamine Badji

Vasil Kolev

Jérémie Zimmermann

Cally Gordon

Hakisho Nukama

Daniel C Howe

Douglas Stebila

Jennifer Rexford

Nayantara Mallesh

Valeria de Paiva

Tim Bulow

Meredith Whittaker

Max Hunter

Maja Lampe

Thomas Ristenpart

Lisa Wright

August Germar

Ronald Deibert

Harlan Lieberman-Berg

Alan L. Stewart

Alexander Muentz

Erin Benson

Carmela Troncoso

David Molnar

Holger Levsen

Peter Grombach

John McIntyre

Lisa Geelan

Antonius Kies

Jörg Kruse

Arnold Top

Vladimir G. Ivanovic

Ahmet A. Sabancı

Henriette Hofmeier

Ethan Heilman

Daniël Verhoeven

Alex Shepard

Max Maass

Ed Agro

Andrew Heist

Patrick McDonald

Lluís Sala

Laurelai Bailey

Ghost

José Manuel Cerqueira Esteves

Fabio Pietrosanti

Cobus Carstens

Harald Lampesberger

Douwe Schmidt

Sascha Meinrath

C. Waters

Bruce Schneier

George Danezis

Claudia Diaz

Kelley Misata

Denise Mangold

Owen Blacker

Zach Wick

Gustavo Gus

Alexander Dietrich

Frank Smyth

Dafne Sabanes Plou

Steve Giovannetti

Grit Hemmelrath

Masashi Crete-Nishihata

Michael Carbone

Amie Stepanovich

Kaustubh Srikanth

arlen

Enrique Piracés

Antoine Beaupré

Daniel Kahn Gillmor

Richard Johnson

Ashok Gupta

Alex Halderman

Brett Solomon

Raegan MacDonald

Joseph Steele

Marie Gutbub

Valeria Betancourt

Konstantin Müller

Emma Persky

Steve Wyshywaniuk

Tara Whalen

Joe Justen

Susan Kentner

Josh King

Juha Nurmi

John Saylor

Jurre van Bergen

Saedu Haiza

Anders Damsgaard

Sadia Afroz

Nat Meysenburg

x3j11

Julian Assange

Skyhighatrist

Dan Staples

Grady Johnson

Matthew Green

Cameron Williams

Roy Johnson

Laura S Potter-Brown

Meredith L. Patterson

Casey Dunham

Raymond Johansen

Kieran Thandi

Jason Gulledge

Matt Weeks

Khalil Sehnaoui

Brennan Novak

Casey Jones

Jesse Victors

Peter DeChristo

Nick Black

Štefan Gurský

Glenn Greenwald

hinterland3r

Russell Handorf

Lisa D Lowe

Harry Halpin

Cooper Quintin

Mark Burdett

Conrad Corpus

Steve Revilak

Nate Shiff

Annie Zaman

Matthew Miller (Fedora Project)

David Fetter

Gabriella Biella Coleman

Ryan Lackey

Peter Clemenko

Serge Egelman

David Robinson

Sasa Savic

James McWilliams

Arrigo Triulzi

Kevin Bowen

Kevin Carson

Sajeeb Bhowmick

Dominik Rehm

William J. Coldwell

Niall Madhoo

Christoph Mayer

Simone Fischer-Hübner

George W. Maschke

Jens Kubieziel

Dan Hanley

Robin Jacks

Zenaan Harkness

Pete Newell

Aaron Michael Johnson

Kitty Hundal

Sabine "Atari-Frosch" Engelhardt

Wilton Gorske

Lukas Lamla

Kat Hanna

Polly Powledge

Sven Guckes

Georgia Bullen

Vladan Joler

Eric Schaefer

Ly Ngoc Quan Ly

Martin Kepplinger

Freddy Martinez

David Haren

Simon Richter

Brighid Burns

Peter Holmelin

Davide Barbato

Neil McKay

Joss Wright

Troy Toman

Morana Miljanovic

Simson Garfinkel

Harry Hochheiser

Malte Dik

Tails project

„nuocu

Kurt Weisman

BlacquePhalcon

Shaikh Rafia

Olivier Brewaeys

Sander Venema

James Murphy

Chris "The Paucie" Pauciello

Syrup-tan

Brad Parfitt

Jerry Whiting

Massachusetts Pirate Party

András Stribik

Alden Page

Juris Vetra

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn

Marcel de Groot

Ryan Henry

Joy Lowell

Guilhem Moulin

Werner Jacob

Tansingh S. Partiman

Bryce Alexander Lynch

Robert Guerra

John Tait

Sebastian Urbach

Atro Tossavainen

Alexei Czeskis

Greg Norcie

Greg Metcalfe

Benjamin Chrobot

Lorrie Faith Cranor

Jamie D. Thomas

EJ Infeld

Douglas Edwards

Cody Celine

Ty Bross

Matthew Garrett

Sam P.

Vidar Waagbø

Raoul Unger

Aleksandar Todorović

John Olinda

Graham Perkins

Casa Casanova

James Turnbull

Eric Hogue

Jacobo Nájera

Ben Adida

If you would like to be on this list of signers (please do — you don't have to be a part of Tor to sign on!), please reach us at tor-assistants @ torproject.org.