Our mission
Advance universal digital and personhood rights through constitutional governance, open infrastructure and public-interest advocacy.
Our Foundation
Protecting Personhood in an Intelligent World.
Our vision
An Internet where people retain sovereignty over their identities, information, relationships and delegated digital agency.
Our institutional principles
Nine commitments that guide our work
- 01
Universality of fundamental rights
- 02
Primacy of the human person
- 03
Legitimate and accountable authority
- 04
Informed consent and meaningful agency
- 05
Privacy and informational self-determination
- 06
Transparency and verifiability
- 07
Interoperability and openness
- 08
Proportionality and due process
- 09
Accountability and effective redress
Our historical foundations
Continuity from human rights to personhood rights
Our work stands in a continuous tradition. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) set out rights belonging to every person. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, General Assembly Resolution 53/144 (1998) affirmed the right of individuals and groups to promote and protect those rights.
Historical advocacy for a Universal Declaration of Digital Rights sought to carry these protections into networked life. Today, the emerging discipline of digital constitutionalism asks how rights and limits on power can be secured in digital environments.
We treat these international instruments as normative foundations. Referencing them does not imply UN accreditation, special legal powers or formal endorsement of the Foundation.
Institutional governance
Towards transparent, participatory stewardship
The Foundation intends to establish transparent and participatory stewardship of public-interest protocols and constitutional frameworks, with clear processes for independent participation, review and accountability.
These governance arrangements are being developed. The Foundation does not currently claim charitable, tax-exempt or non-profit registration, regulatory authority or UN accreditation. Legal structures, formal governance powers and any transfers of intellectual property will be announced only once they have been completed.
The Foundation's public-interest mission is distinct from the commercial activities of metaProof Inc.
Leadership
Founder
Dele Atanda
Founder and Chairman, The Internet Foundation
Dele Atanda is the founder of The Internet Foundation. His work spans digital rights, cognitive computing and ethical data governance, and he has long advocated for extending universal rights into digital life.
He leads the Foundation's development of the Constitutional Internet — a framework in which the rights of the person, the legitimate limits of power and the accountability of intelligent systems are designed into digital infrastructure itself.
Cross the Threshold
See the mandate in practice
Our principles are meant to be lived, not only read. Cross the Threshold to experience the Constitutional Internet they describe.