Center for Democracy Technology

At CDT, we believe in the power of the Internet.

The Center for Democracy & Technology:

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a champion of global online civil liberties and human rights, driving policy outcomes that keep the Internet open, innovative, and free. As Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Chief Technologist at CDT explains, “At CDT, we believe in the power of the Internet. Whether it's facilitating entrepreneurial endeavors, providing access to new markets and opportunities, or creating a platform for free speech, the Internet empowers, emboldens and equalizes people around the world.”

“Civil liberties and human rights require open forums,” Hall explained, “in which to educate, be educated, and share newly learned information as well as organize like-minded constituents for social, economic, and political activity.”

The CDT sees its role as a protector of the democratic distribution of power on the Internet, keeping principles of openness close to home. Hall noted “We don’t want people to be regulated to death. We spend time lobbying on behalf of the principles of freedom, innovation, and openness targeting issues ranging from policy around innovation to privacy legislation.”

Partnering with Cloudflare’s Project Galileo:

Ultimately, CDT is doing it’s best to protect safety and freedom online through research, advocacy, and partnerships with the private sector. “We can’t do it alone,” Hall commented. “We are small and must be very careful with the resources we have at our disposal. At the same time, we’re combating technical censorship and attacks by sophisticated cyber criminals and governments hostile to the values we promote. Project Galileo is designed to help when and where we can’t. It protects nonprofit advocacy, art, and culture websites from malicious attacks that could otherwise result in technical censorship that’s available to anyone with the means to hire a botnet. Since a core aspect of CDT's work is oriented towards increased access to information and resisting government and private efforts to censor content, Project Galileo is a crucial tool at the disposal of our community.”

Project Galileo’s Impact:

As a partner, CDT recommends organizations to receive Project Galileo protection. “There’s a sort of helplessness when people experience DDoS attacks,” Hall related. “There’s a gap between people knowing what’s happening to them and what they can do to stop it. Project Galileo is important because it offers powerful protection and reliability to needy organizations who could not afford or implement this quality of service otherwise.”

“I really wish more people had the basic digital literacy to know that ‘we’re this kind of organization with resources like Project Galileo freely available to help protect us.”

“The largest impact of Project Galileo is the hardest to measure: to what extent would the world be worse off if the sites it protects were taken offline or had to use an alternative nonprofit-friendly mitigation platform? I think it's safe to say the world is much better off with the billions of pageviews that would otherwise not have happened!”