Call for Participation

The Internet landscape is ever more firmly on its course towards surveillance and centralization. A handful of cloud and CDN providers carry most of the traffic; and take large parts of the Internet down with them when they fail. States are building their own splinternets: Russia blocks WhatsApp and pushes its state messenger MAX, Iran imposed the longest nationwide shutdown on record in January 2026. The EU’s Chat Control keeps coming back, with client-side scanning and detection orders threatening end-to-end encryption.
Age-verification laws are turning everyday services into identity checkpoints, Google is moving to require registration even for sideloaded Android apps, and the AI industry treats the open web as raw material.
In this scenario, where most Internet-connected devices have become tools of imprisonment rather than liberation, reviving the old Internet ethos of peer-to-peer (P2P) and private communication is of the utmost importance.

Taking a modest but nonetheless important step, we hereby come to announce the return of the Decentralized Internet and Privacy Devroom at FOSDEM 2027.
This devroom welcomes talks from all technical projects and initiatives which foster decentralization and privacy on the Internet, or try to replace it for something new altogether. We also welcome those working on securing the devices, operating systems and user-facing software we use to access The Net.

For those new to it, FOSDEM is an annual conference on free and open source software, attended by over 8000 developers and enthusiasts from all over the world. It takes place in Brussels (Belgium) at the ULB (Campus Solbosch). It is a community-driven event and entry is free of charge.
Beyond the main programme, FOSDEM supports dozens of devrooms, mini conferences-within-a-conference, dedicated to discussing a specific theme.

FOSDEM 2027 takes place on the weekend of 30 and 31 January 2027. The Decentralized Internet and Privacy Devroom will run on Sunday (31st) for half a day (5 hours).

Scope of Talks

We are particularly interested in work that responds to the current wave of identity mandates, platform lockdowns, and infrastructure consolidation - and in projects that offer practical alternatives.

Presentation topics may include:

ad-hoc and mesh networks
community run ISPs and networks
anonymous overlay networks
censorship circumvention and shutdown-resistant connectivity
cryptography-based network stacks and protocols (e.g. public key as identity)
post-quantum migration for private communication
decentralized/federated network protocols and platforms
decentralized instant messaging, video/file sharing and content storage
self-hosting and community-hosting solutions
resilient infrastructure: DNS, CDN, and cloud diversity
anti-scraping, bot management, and the open web
minimalistic and privacy-preserving browsers and extensions
privacy-oriented operating systems
app distribution, sideloading, and device attestation
anonymous credentials and privacy-preserving age verification
measurement studies of censorship, centralization, and surveillance

Format

Talks are expected to be technical and no more than 20-25 min long. Total time with Q&A and moderation should stay under 30 min.
Speakers may submit multiple talks.

Requirements

All talks should be held in English.
Talks as well as Q&As will be recorded and later published in the FOSDEM website. They may be also livestreamed. By hosting a talk, you agree to the publication of its recordings, slides and other content under the CC BY 2.0 BE license.

While attending FOSDEM, you are required to adhere to the FOSDEM Code of Conduct.

Submission

https://fosdem.org/submit

Talks should be submitted on the FOSDEM pretalx making sure to select “Decentralized Internet and Privacy” in the Track dropdown.

Use the submission notes to let us know about links to code, slides or other resources for the talk.

Key dates

Submission deadline: December 2 2026, 23:59 CET
Announcement of selected talks: December 7 2026
Devroom day: January 31 2027 (half day)