Introducing the Outline Foundation: An Independent Home for Outline

Since its launch in 2018, Outline — Jigsaw’s open-source anti-censorship technology — has pursued a simple but powerful idea: empower anyone, anywhere, to access the global internet and share information freely. Defying the traditional barriers of geography or circumstance, Outline transformed the global digital landscape, expanding the internet freedom ecosystem from a handful of centralized services to a vast, distributed movement of resilient virtual private networks (VPNs) and apps operated by individuals, journalists, and human rights defenders. Today, we see Outline as an essential public good — one that deserves long-term, community-centered governance. Therefore, as of January 2026, Jigsaw will transition stewardship of Outline to a new, independent, nonprofit organization: the Outline Foundation.

A legacy of global impact

Prior to Outline’s launch, censorship-resistant VPN service was consolidated among only a handful of providers. Users had to trust these third party providers in exchange for access, and the centralization of service made each one easier for censors to identify and block. Outline upended this paradigm through its distributed model that empowers anyone to deploy their own VPN in the cloud, and currently enables over 140,000 self-managed VPNs. Outline has become a critical access point for people facing internet restrictions, particularly during crisis events — whether during the VPN blocks in Turkmenistan, the civil war in Myanmar, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. In these moments, demand for Outline spikes almost instantly, often serving as an early indicator of unrest or information disruption.

“Outline is attempting to fulfill the original design criteria of the Internet by keeping the system as open as possible in the face of resistance to that goal.”

– Vint Cerf, Google Chief Internet Evangelist

As Outline’s impact grew, we saw a path to making the core Outline technology into even more than a VPN tool. Developers began forking our open-source code, localizing and extending it with new features to meet their needs. Recognizing this momentum, we launched Outline SDK in 2023, enabling any developer to integrate Outline’s powerful network resilience technology directly into their apps and services. Outline SDK grew to become a common platform leveraged not only by all four leading anti-censorship VPNs but also by prominent news publishers, which use it to reliably reach audiences in highly restricted environments. Today, Outline technology helps over 30 million people connect to the open internet, offering a vital lifeline in places where information is most at risk.

Oliver Linow, Internet Freedom Specialist at Deutsche Welle, notes that, “Deutsche Welle takes the issue of internet censorship very seriously, as our online content is blocked in many countries. Our new DW Access app is developed specifically for people in countries with internet restrictions and uses Outline SDK to provide reliable connectivity. We trust the Outline technology because it is open source, auditable, adaptable, and community-informed.”

Valentina Aguana Villegas, Technical Project Coordinator at Conexión Segura y Libre, adds, “Outline SDK powers our newsreader app Noticias Sin Filtro, which we launched just before the 2024 Venezuelan presidential elections. Thanks to Outline SDK, Venezuelans can access the news and circumvent a new wave of digital censorship and internet blocks, without requiring any technical expertise. We’ve had over 130,000 downloads since our launch, and over 30 media partners whose websites or audio content can now be accessed through the app.”

A vision for a more collaborative future

As digital repression spreads, independent tools that provide safe and reliable access to the open internet are paramount. Outline SDK creates a space where circumvention experts, VPN service operators, and app developers can build on each other’s work to accelerate our collective impact against censorship. We envision a world where circumvention tools are no longer isolated defenses, but rather an interoperable and resilient ecosystem. In this collaborative model, Outline will serve as a force multiplier for the community’s collective strength, and internet censorship can finally become technically obsolete.

Achieving this vision requires operating from a neutral and community-governed place within the broader internet freedom community. The Outline Foundation will be the steward of the Outline portfolio, cultivating its open-source technology and future development and ensuring that Outline remains a trusted resource shaped by the people who rely on it.

The Outline Foundation will be led by Shabnam Aslam, as President. With more than fifteen years of experience in human rights, humanitarian action, and civic technology, Shabnam’s career has been shaped by frontline work in conflict zones and global efforts to defend digital freedom in some of the world’s most challenging environments.

“Outline has always been more than a VPN — it’s a critical infrastructure trusted by millions. I’m humbled to steward Outline into its next chapter as we build a community-governed home that is independent, transparent, and resilient. My focus is on servant leadership and ensuring Outline remains a trusted technology grounded in the communities who rely on it.”

– Shabnam Aslam, President, Outline Foundation

Jigsaw will continue to be a contributing partner in this new model. In particular, Vinicius Fortuna, Jigsaw’s Engineering Lead for Outline, will serve on the inaugural board and continue to inform the organization’s technology strategy. Along with Vinicius, the founding board members include Adam Fisk of Lantern, and Martin Zhu of nthLink — both of whom lead VPNs serving users around the globe who experience internet restrictions — with plans to add new members in the coming year.

Join us in shaping the future of internet freedom

We are deeply grateful to the many partners, contributors, developers, and community members who have shaped Outline into the global resource it is today.

As the Outline Foundation takes the vision forward, we, together with the foundation’s leadership, encourage and invite:

• Developers to continue contributing to and building on the open-source codebase
• Organizations and funders to partner with the Outline Foundation in strengthening global access
• Community members to help define the future of a truly interoperable censorship-resilience ecosystem

We are incredibly proud of what the Outline community has accomplished, and we are even more excited for it to thrive and grow under the stewardship of the Outline Foundation.

By Scott Carpenter, Managing Director, Jigsaw