14 DAY TRIAL // Riseup, the Seattle-based service that provides encrypted and anonymous communications for dissidents all over the world, announced during the weekend that it's running out of money.
Administrators have sent out a message to all the service's users asking them for help. The letter cites several unexpected hardware failures, lower-than-expected donations from the site's users, and a record year in terms of new Riseup users.
Based on estimated costs, Riseup says it will be unable to pay for its services starting next month. Administrators are now asking users to donate at least $1, if possible.
The network, which provides free & secure email accounts, email lists, VPNs, and an online XMPP chat service, claims to service over 150,000 email accounts, 7.2 million users subscribed to over 14,000 email lists, and God knows how many XMPP users.
These are only a fraction of the total number of users Riseup has been servicing for free in the past 17 years.
Riseup has gained huge traction after the Snowden revelations, with many people flocking to the network because of its ability to provide anonymous and encrypted communications.
Just like TOR, Riseup is popular with dissidents and criminals alike. In January 2015, Spanish authorities arrested eleven people just for using the service.
Riseup admins sent out their request for donations in seven languages (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek). You can read their full statement below.
[en] English – Riseup financial update
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The news is not good
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We hate to be bad news birds, but we need to tell you that Riseup will run out of money next month. We had a number of unexpected hardware failures, lower-than-expected regular donations, and a record year of new Riseup users which puts more financial pressure on us than ever before.
We need your help to keep things going this year, so we are starting a campaign to ask Riseup users to give us just one dollar!
Can you give us a dollar? There are a lot of easy ways to do it: https://riseup.net/donate
Is it really worth giving just a dollar?
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Yes! It might seem inconsequential, but if you and every Riseup user gave us just one dollar, that would fix our current financial problem.
Riseup is now delivering over a million messages a day, but we need your help if the messages are to keep flowing. You know the importance of alternative infrastructure. You know the importance of communications systems that put people before personal tracking and corporate profiteering. We *need* at least 5% of our users donating monthly to be sustainable. Can you become a monthly donor?
Spread the word
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Are you friends with a carrier pigeon? Do you know morse code? Are you skilled in building signal fires? Help us spread the word about this campaign with your community. You can even use the internet, that might work too.
Not everyone can afford a dollar to donate. We provide services to so many people and social movements around the world, many in places where even one dollar is a lot of money. If you can give us one dollar, maybe you can cover one other person by giving two?
In Europe it is now easy to give to Riseup with a simple bank transfer! Tell your friends that it is finally easy.
Thanks!
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Really! Truly! Thanks for all that you do, day in and day out, on our long march toward making the world a better place. If you can, help us continue our work, too. That would be excellent. https://riseup.net/donate