Keeping digital spaces alive: TLGB Bolivia

CHALLENGE

Distributed Press is on a mission to contribute to a web that is more private, reliable, secure and open. With the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web-supported Resilience Grant, we sought to spotlight the vulnerability of centralized digital infrastructures and provide sustainable alternatives through peer-to-peer protocols. Our contemporary internet is more fragile than it seems, with entire digital collections disappearing due to server failures, targeted attacks or lack of maintenance.

One such case was Colectivo TLGB Bolivia, a network defending the rights of LGTBQ+ communities across the country. Their online platform had become a target for cyberattacks, misinformation campaigns, and digital vandalism. Their site even suffered defacement—where attackers altered its appearance to spread hate—putting years of advocacy, reputation and crucial resources at risk.

SOLUTION

The Resilience Grant invited organizations that have lost access to their digital assets to apply for a site recovery. The selected organizations were offered the chance to have their archives restored and converted into static sites, distributed via HTTPS, IPFS, and Hypercore—eliminating dependence on a single centralized server and ensuring long-term accessibility.

RESULT

Colectivo TLGB Bolivia was one of the selected cases, meeting both the technical and organizational criteria of the initiative. By using decentralized web technologies and static-site architecture, we helped recover their website, shielding it from future cyberattacks, ensuring its long-term availability, and preserving its extensive archive of LGBTQ+ activism, legal resources, and community-driven documentation.

FULL STORY

The internet is full of valuable information, but it's also fragile. Websites disappear all the time due to technical failures, lack of maintenance, and attacks. This growing problem is referred to as "digital decay". A recent study by Pew Research Center found that 54% of Wikipedia pages contain at least one link in their “References” that points to a page that no longer exists. Digital decay means that entire collections of knowledge are being lost.

Colectivo TLGB Bolivia, a network that fights for LGBTQ+ rights across the country, knows this struggle firsthand. Their website, which provided important legal information and advocacy materials, was hit by misinformation campaigns and cyberattacks. At one point, attackers took over the site and changed its content to spread hate, making it unsafe for users and threatening years of hard work.

This grassroots organization has operated across all nine departmental capitals and several rural municipalities since 2000, ensuring that individuals of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities can fully exercise their rights. In addition to legislative advocacy, Colectivo TLGB Bolivia places a strong emphasis on health and well-being and has been instrumental in addressing mental health support and discrimination in healthcare settings. They've built alliances with various public and private institutions to provide comprehensive support to everyone in need. We were eager to support this organization's digital resilience.

What we did to help

Distributed Press launched the Resilience Grant to help organizations facing such challenges. We wanted to show how websites that rely solely on centralized hosting are vulnerable to decay and to offer alternatives using peer-to-peer technologies.

We invited groups that have lost access to their digital materials to apply. After reviewing applications, we selected two organizations, including Colectivo TLGB Bolivia. Our goal was to rebuild their sites as a static site and host it on regular web servers as well as decentralized networks such as IPFS and Hypercore. This would make the sites easier to access in the long run, as having multiple pathways to access content increases resilience by preventing single points of failure.

How the recovery worked

Colectivo TLGB Bolivia had backups of their content, database, and source code, along with installation instructions. However, the site was built with PHP 5.3, a version that has been unsupported for over a decade. This meant that no modern tools could run the site without making significant and invasive modifications to the code. To work around this, we searched for a way to run PHP 5 and keep the site functional. We used Alpine 3.8 containers, which supports at least PHP 5.6, allowing us to get the site running long enough to properly archive it.

Having access to the source code and a backup during the recovery process allowed us to make necessary adaptations, such as ensuring all URLs were consistent, which facilitated the archiving process.

We then converted the website into a static version, ideal for content susceptible to attacks due to their inherent security advantages, as they present a reduced attack surface. Without server-side scripts or database interactions, static sites are less susceptible to common threats like SQL injection or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Finally, we distributed the site across multiple systems and nodes, including standard HTTPS, IPFS, and Hypercore.

The result

Colectivo TLGB Bolivia’s site is now available in several ways:

For activists and community groups, keeping their digital spaces online is just as important as organizing in person. Websites are often targets of censorship and attacks, especially for groups that challenge discrimination and defend human rights. By using decentralized technology, we’re helping to make sure these voices aren’t erased.

This project was a singular but important step in making the internet more reliable for communities that need it the most. We are committed to helping more organizations take action to secure their digital work for the future.

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