Calling for Vultr to reverse its suspension of GreatFire’s FreeWeChat server

Dear Mr Aninowsky and Mr Kardwell,

We, the undersigned human rights, free expression, press freedom and digital rights organisations, are writing in regard to the recent suspension of GreatFire’s server following a complaint submitted by Group-IB on behalf of Tencent. We are concerned that this decision has severely impacted a vital public interest project documenting online censorship carried out by the Chinese authorities.

While we understand that Vultr must respond to complaints in accordance with your Terms of Service, we would like to request information regarding your processes and due diligence procedures and reverse the decision to suspect the FreeWeChat server. FreeWeChat is widely used by journalists, researchers, and human rights defenders and provides unprecedented insight into the scale of the Chinese authority’s ability to censor content and isolate the Chinese population from the global community.