Who We Are

Operator Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas that creates open source software and hardware technology to increase safety online for individuals as well as vulnerable communities. Operator Foundation’s mission is to enable unfettered access to the Internet, open communication, and global Internet security through technology development, deployment, and education. Working with specific communities, Operator develops bespoke technologies to facilitate access to credible and relevant information and open communication around the world. We believe that access to information is a human right and that providing access improves lives in countless ways.

Why We Need You

Operator Foundation, along with our peers in the global movement to protect human rights through providing access to information, are facing a sudden funding crisis due to federal funding cuts and program suspensions affecting grants that fuel our open source technology development and deployment activities. While non-profits like Operator Foundation draw funding from a number of sources such as individual donations, private charitable foundations, and grants, the majority of funding for developing information access technology has traditionally been through grants. This is true not just for Operation Foundation, but also for all of the partners that we work with to deploy the technologies we develop in countries where Internet access is cut off as a means of oppression. For the last ten years, Operator Foundation has been funded by highly competitive federal grants that Congress has allocated under the category of foreign aid. The recent federal funding freeze on all foreign aid represented a loss of about 75% of our programming, putting an immediate stop to our work on developing secure communication tools. While the freeze has been unpaused, the damage has been done to the previously consistent federal grant cycles which have been disrupted, leaving nonprofits like ours struggling to maintain full funding. Without finding a new source of funding separate from federal grant programs, there is no possibility to continue this work, which provides crucial information access to some of the people that need it most. That's why we are asking you to help support our work directly through an individual donation.

Our Work

Nahoft is a perfect example of an open source tool that Operator Foundation developed to provide safer communication for extremely vulnerable populations in information-repressed societies. This tool was developed in collaboration with United for Iran, through their Irancubator program for incubating innovative new projects for use in Iran. United for Iran developed the use case and concept, and Operator Foundation developed new technology for this use case and implemented the software for the application. Since the original incubator program, Operator Foundation and United for Iran have both contributed to software updates and United for Iran has provided distribution of the application within Iran.

The use case for which Nahoft was developed is that within Iran, Internet shutdowns are common. For people in the US, it's hard to imagine the government shutting down the country's connectivity with the global Internet even for one day, but in Iran it has become more and more frequent. In fact, the government of Iran has developed their own national network, called the National Information Network, which they completely control. They can disconnect it from the global Internet whenever and as often as they want. The National Information Network only covers Iran. It lets people continue to use Iranian services, such as local online banking, as well as use government-controlled communication services, such as a special version of the Telegram chat application that the Iranian government can surveil and censor. However, applications that rely on services hosted outside of the country, such as Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. are completely blocked during a shutdown. Of course, secure communication applications such as Signal are also blocked. This means that users have no way to communicate safely as their only choices that are not blocked are heavily monitored and controlled by the government.

Nahoft was created specifically to meet the safety needs of end users at risk of persecution and imprisonment while attempting to further democracy in their homeland. This app has provided increased safety and communication for users during critical moments where the internet is shut down, such as during the widespread national protests in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini when she was in police custody, a protest movement known as the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement.

Nahoft is a state-of-the-art encryption app made for Android and iOS mobile phones. With Nahoft you can easily encrypt your private messages so that only the recipient can read it. No one intercepting your messages can read the contents, even if you use an insecure means of communication such as those available on the National Information Network. However, encryption is not sufficient for this use case because the Iranian government can simply block any encrypted messages that they see on the network. Therefore, Nahoft goes further, either disguising your encrypted message as an unencrypted text message or hiding the message inside a photo that you can share. These paragraphs of text and these photos can be shared using any means accessible to the users, such as Telegram, email, or even shared locally over Bluetooth file sharing. To the network monitors they are just normal texts and photos, so they can avoid being blocked. [https://nahoftapp.com/index-en.html]

While Nahoft was developed specifically for United for Iran to help users in Iran that are having severe oppression and frequent Internet shutdowns, the core technology developed by Operator Foundation for this project is of general use for other situations which face similar threats. Nahoft is currently available in English and Farsi, and is free for anyone to use. It can be obtained from the iOS and Android app stores at no cost. It is a gift from the people of the United States to the citizens of Iran who are oppressed by their government as they fight for democracy and fundamental human rights in their homeland.

In addition to our work with civil society organizations protecting human rights in Iran, Operator has also been working with journalists in repressive countries where just being a journalist can result in harassment and imprisonment. Operator has developed a satellite-based communications system that allows journalists to send and receive text messages internationally without the need for Internet or phone service. These devices have been tested by journalism organizations all over the world and provide journalists with a safety net that allows them to provide updates and request aid during incidents where Internet access is blocked and in remote areas which have no Internet access or phone service coverage. The disruption of funding to programs like Operator's to enhance journalist safety has left many journalists vulnerable out in the field with no further access to resources necessary to support their work, ensure their safety, and allow them to request aid when in a dangerous situation. Of particular note is Operator's work on providing satellite text messaging services to journalists in Ukraine. As this is an active war zone where satellite jamming occurs, the current version of Operator's satellite text messaging device has not been successful when deployed in Ukraine. The journalists there have requested a customized version that allows for a larger external antenna to be affixed to the device, giving it better reception so that it can work despite the active jamming encountered in the region. In order to provide this important upgrade to journalists in Ukraine, Operator needs additional funding in order to design the new version, manufacture it, and have it delivered to Ukraine.

Operator's work always focuses on helping specific communities by designing custom technology. An example of this is the Karen people of Myanmar, who live in a mountainous region with no Internet or phone service. This region is so mountainous that the majority of the villages cannot be accessed by road. Sending a message from one village to another can take up to three days by courier on foot. While the Karen people have been gifted two Starlink satellite Internet access terminals, these provide Internet to only two houses in the entire region, limited the impact on the overall community. Operator has designed a communication system for this region in collaboration with DT Institute. It provides two additional means of communication. The existing Starlinks can have their access spread to neighboring villages using special WiFi range extenders. These range extenders can be combined with self-service kiosks at each WiFi access point that provide local access to smartphone applications, chat, and file sharing services. This system creates a series of digital oasis locations where community members from each village can gather to take advantage of the available connectivity. Additionally, Operator has designed a long-distance communication system based on high-frequency radio that allows community members to share voice communication and file sharing from village-to-village, reducing the need for on-foot couriers. Operator's deployment partner, DT Institute, has been preparing to deploy Operator's communication network design in the Karen region. However, with cuts to funding for both Operator and DT Institute, the amount of support possible has been greatly reduced. Operator needs additional funding in order to provide more communication equipment to the Karen people so that they can connect a larger number of villages to the network. Additionally, Operator could use funds to design custom communication tools to operate on this network. In particular, easier-to-use tools for sending digital data such as file sharing would be beneficial to these communities. Note that our current efforts in Myanmar focus on an area not affected by the recent earthquake; the call to action is for a long standing need of the Karen people for improved access to information between villages.

Call to Action

Operator Foundation is asking you to help join the fight against global oppression by contributing to our fund to continue working on projects to help human rights protectors in Iran, journalists in Ukraine, and remote villages in Myanmar. These projects are just a few examples of the many communities that Operator develops custom technology in order to protect their safety and human rights by providing access to communication tools that fit their specific needs. Although Operator Foundation has a skilled grant-writing team that has often won highly competitive federal grants, there has recently been a major shift in federal grant funding, and we do not anticipate that there will be any more federal funding forthcoming this year for this work, despite the success and importance of the project and the crucial need for secure communication tools in Iran, Ukraine, Myanmar, and around the world. Your individual contribution is the only hope that we have at this time to continue this work. We have many ideas for how to improve these tools which we are ready to act upon as soon as funding has been acquired. Before the funding freeze, we were working with usability consultants and doing focus groups and field testing in order to figure out how to improve these products for the end users. We have several small changes we could make to all of these products that we think would have a big impact on usability. We simply lack the funds to implement these changes. We also have plans to increase the scope of our tools beyond just the current users to include other countries that face Internet shutdowns (or may face them in the future) as well. Additionally, we have some powerful new technology that we have been working on so that these tools can work in even more aggressive shutdowns. We have a passion for helping people, and we would love to implement these changes. All we need is to find the right partners to help us obtain the necessary resources to keep working, to keep helping people, to keep fighting for human rights and democracy. We hope that's you! So please donate to the Operator Foundation donation drive and let's work together to make the world a better place for those who most need our help.

Your donation will fund Operator Foundation's staff hours on the above mentioned efforts in Iran, Ukraine, and Myanmar, with a focus on engineering design, development, deployment, and technical support activities to deliver communication solutions to these end users at no cost to them.

We appreciate donations of any amount! If you are considering a large donation we would love to meet with you to discuss projects that focus on the humanitarian efforts you are most passionate about.