Established in 2011, China-based GreatFire has tackled censorship by the Chinese authorities head on. The organization largely operates anonymously. All team members maintain close ties to China and are dedicated to establishing freedom of access to information for all Chinese.

Martin Johnson (pseudonym), Co-Founder

Oversees all technology initiatives and has recently been leveraging AI to enhance our current projects and to create new ones. He is motivated not just by finding solutions to problems, but by creating tanglible, measurable, and impactful projects.

Charlie Smith (pseudonym), Co-Founder

Oversees organizational operations and strategic vision. He has over a decade of experience monitoring and analyzing trends in Chinese internet and social media censorship. Charlie specializes in identifying compelling censored topics emerging from millions of data points. He is also experienced in media interviews and public engagement.

Benjamin Ismail, Campaign and Advocacy Director

Leads our efforts to expose the censorship apparatus of authoritarian regimes worldwide. He also manages the App Censorship Project, including the AppleCensorship and GoogleCensorship platforms, which track mobile app censorship globally. From 2011 to 2017, Benjamin headed the Asia-Pacific desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Emily Brown (pseudonym), Program Manager

Keeps all of GreatFire's projects headed in the right direction. She is responsible for tracking and reporting on the impact of our work. She maintains close ties to the global internet freedom community and helps to identify and establish partnerships with like-minded organizations.