Blog Post Oct 6, 2025 The Riyadh job Fifty comedians playing in Saudi Arabia, millions of dollars, and one head-scratcher: Why are they doing this?
Blog Post Aug 26, 2025 The Sculptor Xi Jinping Wants You to Forget For 68-year-old Gao Zhen, last Aug. 26 wasn’t just any other day — it was the day of his arrest.
Blog Post Aug 22, 2025 The Blurry Lines Between Private and Public As a human rights organization, we see economic freedom as inseparable from political and civil freedoms. The freer world we live in today owes much to the expansion of international trade and capital flows. But while economic openness has…
Blog Post Aug 11, 2025 A ‘known unknown’ Where’s all the money coming into American think tanks from? Ben Freeman on the enormous foreign-government “donations” flowing through Washington, D.C.
Blog Post Jul 31, 2025 Tracking CBDCs before they track you Nicholas Anthony Policymakers around the world have become consumed with the idea of launching central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. Prior to 2019, only a small handful of central banks were exploring this idea. Yet, today,…
Blog Post Jun 25, 2025 Connections What does financial repression in autocracies have to do with financial freedom in democracies? Justin Callais on human flourishing in the modern world.
Blog Post Jun 23, 2025 House money Why are countries around the world developing virtual legal tenders? Roger Huang on the origins, implementation, and implications of central bank digital currencies.
Blog Post Jun 19, 2025 Untouchable Why has Bitcoin become so popular with dissidents living in dictatorships? Farida Nabourema on what the emerging technology has in common with an old suitcase stuffed with cash.
Blog Post Jun 18, 2025 Cash Grab What is financial repression? Félix Maradiaga on how autocratic regimes are using the global banking system, international law, and new technologies in an old struggle to suppress dissent and hold power.
Blog Post Jun 6, 2025 Bitcoin Development Fund 5 year Report The Bitcoin Development Fund 5 Year Report marks five years of impact through the Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF), which has awarded over $8.5 million in BTC to nearly 300 projects across 62 countries.
Blog Post May 6, 2025 My Reflections on Bitcoin as Freedom Money in Thailand & Burma My name is Win Ko Ko Aung, and I am a global bitcoin adoption fellow at HRF. I help nonprofits operating under authoritarian regimes explore Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom.
Blog Post May 2, 2025 Responsible Finance: Why Political Systems Should Matter to Investors International trade and investment reshaped the world for the better. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, economic openness has reduced poverty on a global scale, brought prosperity to nations from Poland to South Korea, and improved quality of life for hundreds of millions.
Blog Post Apr 14, 2025 How China Uses Financial Repression to Erase the Uyghur People Rushan Abbas has spent years fighting for the freedom of her people, the Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic group in the Uyghur Region, located in northwest China.
Blog Post Mar 28, 2025 ‘It’s a hydra’ What can democracies do about autocratic interference? Josh Rudolph on the challenges of resistance and resiliency.
Blog Post Mar 24, 2025 Enigmas What exactly is the problem here? Justin Callais on the ambiguities of corruption.
Blog Post Mar 21, 2025 Organized Crime Why do dictators keep disrupting so many other countries? Miranda Patrucić on what China and Russia are doing in neighboring nations, developing states, and the world’s most powerful democracies.
Blog Post Mar 17, 2025 Broad Daylight How common is the corruption of public officials in the U.S.? Ben Freeman on what America’s “authoritarian friends” from the Persian Gulf are doing in Washington, D.C.
Blog Post Mar 11, 2025 The Playbook: How Syria’s brutal Assad regime used football to maintain power Welcome to The Playbook, an explainer series from HRF’s Sports & Dictators program that explores the intersection of sports and politics in authoritarian regimes and decodes the disturbing narratives behind the games we love.
Blog Post Feb 20, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #62 This week, we honor the loss of the late Alexei Navalny, whose bravery inspired millions of Russians to stand up against Vladimir Putin’s financial, political, and social repression.
Blog Post Feb 10, 2025 The Playbook: How Saudi Arabia uses tennis to present a facade of women’s reforms When Saudi Arabia hosted one of the most important events in professional women’s tennis, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, in November, it wasn’t, of course, without controversy. The New York Times put it this way:
