As a manager of the Digital Dissident Devroom, Bogomil Shopov invites participants to a conversation about digital freedom and resistance to censorship. Around the world, people are being silenced and denied access to information. Free software can help, but only if built together.
The devroom brings developers, researchers, and activists committed to digital freedom. It focuses on real solutions and collaboration, not product pitches. Attendees are encouraged to bring ideas and questions to build tools that keep freedom alive.
The session complements other devrooms like Decentralized Internet and Privacy. To apply to speak, go to FOSDEM's official CFP portal, login or register, click "Submit a proposal," fill the form, and select "Digital Dissident" as a track. Acceptance requires agreeing to the FOSDEM Code of Conduct.
The devroom addresses the complete chain of tools needed by those under threat: reaching the network via censorship circumvention, communicating without leaking metadata, collecting and verifying evidence safely, and publishing without exposing the author. It emphasizes that the weakest link decides the outcome. Sessions are judged on advancing the toolchain through interoperability, shared threat models, shared failure data, and shared engineering practice.
With censorship growing more sophisticated in Russia, Iran, and China, including national allow-lists and TLS fingerprinting, the devroom connects developers of circumvention, anonymity, messaging, publishing, and whistleblowing tools. It is deliberately not about any single project but how tools fit together end-to-end. At FOSDEM 2026, relevant talks were scattered; this devroom unites that audience and those speakers in one place.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing