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BT Free – A Brief History

Founded in March 2025 by longtime open-source advocate Anthony Zone, BT Free emerged from a deep conviction that the future of the internet belongs to open, decentralized platforms rather than the walled gardens of Big Tech. Anthony's path here ran through seven years at Red Hat, where he served as a liaison between customers and the developers behind systemd and D-Bus during the industry-wide transition to systemd — experience that taught him exactly where the gaps between builders and users open up, and how to close them. After discovering the Fediverse — a network of interoperable, self-hosted services — he fielded countless questions from friends, colleagues, and community members about how to get started. Recognizing the need for a formal vehicle to rally support, secure funding, and provide hands-on help, he launched BT Free as a public charity dedicated to digital-privacy rights, advocacy, and technical assistance.

In its first year, BT Free has grown from vision to practice — and from platform operator to something more: a team of social software specialists serving the open web itself. The organization now operates two independent platforms: btfree.social, a Bonfire-powered Fediverse instance, and tubefree.org, a PeerTube video platform. Through its media productions — Fireside Fedi, the interview show spotlighting the people and projects of the Fediverse, and Works On My Machine, a live series walking through real-world software installs and documentation — BT Free has become a bridge between developers and the people who depend on their work. Developers across the ecosystem have credited the shows with surfacing exactly where onboarding breaks down for first-time users.

That bridge-building is now BT Free's core outreach. The team provides hands-on support to free and open-source software projects — currently partnering with Bonfire and Emissary — offering documentation review, end-user experience feedback, and troubleshooting guides built from real-world deployment failures. As a public charity, all funds raised are reinvested in the independent open web; once we have covered the operating costs of our own platforms, any surplus will be donated back to the open-source projects that power BT Free.

Everything BT Free does embodies its core belief: even when we disagree on content, every individual deserves the right to host and share it on a platform they control — free from the whims of Big Tech monopolies and shifting political climates.

Looking ahead, BT Free aims to expand its outreach to more FOSS projects, help more communities launch self-hosted Fediverse servers, and continue strengthening the ecosystem of open, privacy-first alternatives to mainstream social media. The journey is just beginning, but the goal is clear — empower everyone to choose, create, and communicate on their own terms.

BT Free

Be Free! Big Tech Free!

Mission

Our Team

Anthony Zone