Today, when the return is mentioned, no one has the courage to shrug it off. At la Quadrature du Net, we have been speaking about “authoritarianism” for a long time. But what we long took for a series of skirmishes now increasingly resembles a coherent and concerted attack.
This is why we have decided to devote our 2026 donation campaign to examine the links between digital technologies and their potential use in a fascistic, totalitarian manner. This overview will take the form of published articles and, for the first time, by the production of livestream content.
To fight the authoritarian drift and continue our work for a free digital world, one that is emancipatory and unifying, we need your support!
This year, in order to add to the articles that have long accompanied our donation campaign, we have decided to launch the diffusion of livestream content. In this new format, we will address topics around the “digital technology and fascisation” with the help of guests. They will help us analyse and provide greater insight regarding the political and social processes that we face today and that we must defend for the future.
We have scheduled 5 livestreams by the end of December, which will be available to watch for free on our website. In order to encourage you to help us, here is what we have achieved so far:
- On the 21st November, the first livestream was on the topic of “fascism” and “technofascism”, in order to find a consensus on the different words that can be used, before addressing the substantive issues. We received Nastasia Hadjadji, co-author of “Apocalypse Nerds, How techno-fascists have taken power.”
- On the 26th November, we received Soizic Pénicaud (journalist, teacher and activist) and Clément Pouré (journalist) in order to speak about the function of journalism and its articulation connection with militant causes, in a context of far-right shift of the media world.
- On the 3rd December, with Mathilde Saliou (journalist) and Pablo Rauzy (university professor) we questioned the apparent “neutrality of technology” by analysing how the form given to technological objects is very often designed to serve fascisation, and we discussed different ways of conceiving them in order to lead to a different, more emancipating path.
- On the 10th December, with Pauline and Paloma from the Human Rights Observers and Romain Lanneau from Statewatch, the question of border surveillance and how different technological tools are used was the main topic.
- On the 17th December, the different methods of repression used by intelligence agencies against Muslim people were mentioned, starting with house arrests and the use of “white notes”, used in court to criminalise someone before a given judgement.
Why donate to us this year?
In order to ensure our annual budget, this year we need €250 000 of donation, including the already present monthly subscriptions and new monthly or punctial donations.
What purpose does your donation actually have?
The association has a fantastic group of volunteers, but it also needs a team of salaried staff. The main purpose of the donations is to pay the salaries of the association’s permanent members (around 78% of our expenses). The other costs to cover are the rent and maintenance of our premises, business trips in France and abroad (mostly by train), expenses related to campaigns and events, as well as various material costs for activism (posters, stickers, paper, printer, t-shirts, etc.).
To give you an idea, here are our 2025 expenses (including salaries), broken down across our campaigns according to the time each person spent on the different topics of our struggles:
What are the sources of our fundings?
The association does not touch any public fund, but receives strong support from diverse philantrophic fondations, consisting of 50% of the annuel budget last year.
We are currently supported by “la Fondation pour le progrès de l’Homme”, the “Un monde par tous” foundation, the “Limelight foundation”, the “Digital Freedom Fund” as well as “Civitates”. We also receive punctial support by the european network EDRi.
The rest of our funding comes from donations. So if you can, please help us !
Be aware that, as mentionned in our Q&A, donations made to La Quadrature are not tax-deductible, as the tax authorities have refused us this possibility on two occasions.
How to donate?
You can make a donation by credit card, check, or bank transfer.
If you can make a monthly donation, even a very small one, do not hesitate, as these are our favorites: they allow us to work with more confidence throughout the year by providing a steady income.
Additionally, the total of your donations entitles you to rewards (bag, t-shirt, sweatshirt). Please note, delivery is not automatic—you need to log in and request them on your personal donor page. And if the rewards take a little while to arrive, which isn’t uncommon, it’s because we’re overwhelmed, waiting for restocks in certain sizes, and also because we make everything ourselves by hand. But they always end up arriving!
Thank you again for your generosity, and thank you for your patience <3
This article was translated by our volunteer group. Warm thanks to them all!