Help people in censored environments access information that would normally be blocked. Use your unused domain to make a difference.
Governments around the world are using firewalls to block access to information, directly infringing on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 200 million domains are currently not being used.
Someone mistypes a URL or clicks an outdated link, landing on a dormant domain
Instead of "page not found", Domains for Access handles the request
The system detects the user's language settings
User receives access to information normally blocked in their country
Mr. Wang from Dalian, China used to run babycatchina.com featuring cute cat pictures. When he moved on to dogs, the site went dormant.
His old fans still visit the site, but now they see Wikipedia, which is normally blocked in China.
Sasha and Sara registered sashaandsara.com for their wedding 11 years ago. They keep it for sentimental reasons.
Family and friends still visit occasionally, but now the site helps people in Iran access and download a VPN.
The Russian Widget Factory in Vladivostok kept russianswidgets.com hoping for better economic times.
Their domain appears across Russian business websites. But now when people click on the link, they access a news page filled with sources that are normally blocked in Russia.
For domain owners, we strongly encourage that you hide your ownership of your domain before lending it to us.
We have been fighting censorship in China since 2011. Over the years we have created different tools and websites in an attempt to increase freedom of access to information for all Chinese. The biggest challenge we have faced is trying to get our solutions in front of an audience in China. Domains for Access has proven to be by far the most effective solution. We use this system ourselves, but we see that it could be super-charged if others lent us their domains.
Our hope is that we show censorship-loving authorities that they cannot control access to the internet. We believe that if this project is successful, it will neuter any government action which has placed restrictions on the internet. The authorities will therefore decide that all restrictions should be lifted, meaning that all citizens will enjoy their fundamental human right to freely access information.
What happens next?
Your domain will remain your domain and you can take it back at any time should you want to use your website for your own purposes. Web users might still end up on one of our pages for a short period of time after the change.
We are an anonymous organization fighting for internet freedom around the world. We remain anonymous in order to avoid getting punished by the authorities in countries like China, Russia, and Iran. But we have a long track record of launching and managing anti-censorship projects.
We have been experimenting with this approach for the past two years. We have been purchasing recently expired domain names that we think come with traffic from China, Russia, and/or Iran. Our approach has worked well! Over the past year alone, millions of users have access information that would normally be blocked for them.
At the moment, we operate a rotating stable of websites that we show to users based on the language settings on their device. These pages are mainly websites that we operate with the intention of providing access to users in these regions. The websites include:
Some of the websites that we have purchased have been blocked by the authorities. But normally, websites that do not have significant traffic don't make it on to the radar of the authorities. There is a chance that if you let us use your domain it might get blocked by the authorities in China, Russia or elsewhere. Our experience in China has shown us that once your website gets blocked, it is unlikely to get unblocked.
The authorities might notice that your domain is being used to deliver uncensored information to their citizens. They could check to see who is behind your domain. You can anonymize your ownership of your domain - and many registrars offer this service for free - but if you have not then the authorities could see that you are the owner of your domain. We recommend that you anonymize your domain ownership before you let us use your domain.
Absolutely! The only problem is that since your website is new, it likely has no traffic, because nobody knows about it. But you could purchase a domain that is a misspelling of another domain (like duckduckyo.com) and let us use that.
After you submit your domain, we will provide you with specific configuration instructions based on your setup:
Detailed step-by-step instructions will be provided after you submit your domain. The process is straightforward and typically takes just a few minutes to complete.
These websites receive web traffic from all over the world but we do not track location, only language settings. At the moment, we have local language content for audiences in China, Russia, and Iran. For other languages, we direct users to Wikipedia, an AI engine, and our own pages.
Wikipedia is blocked in China. But your domain (yourdomain.com) is likely not blocked in China. So we will use yourdomain.com to mirror the Wikipedia website (or another website). URLs will look like yourdomain.com/wiki/iran instead of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iran. Since your domain is not blocked in China, users in China will be able to access Wikipedia via yourdomain.com.
We very much hope that your domain generates millions of users! We will take care of all hosting costs. And remember, you can withdraw your domain at any time.
You can reclaim control of your own domain without our involvement. Simply change the details on CloudFlare or your registrar back to your previous settings.