Electronic Frontier Foundation Founded
Event Reviewed Automatically reviewed for factual accuracy, tone, and neutrality. Review does not check claims against cited sources. Last reviewed 25 October 2026.Mitch Kapor, John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit to defend civil liberties in computer communications, months after a Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games.
Founders create a nonprofit to litigate and lobby on online civil liberties.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was announced on 10 July 1990 with a statement by Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow, “Across the Electronic Frontier”, which said they were founding the organization in response to government actions against computer users, citing “the excesses of Operation Sun Devil”. The organization’s own history names John Gilmore as the third co-founder, with assistance from Steve Wozniak; the Associated Press reported that the three founders had met on the online community The WELL.
The immediate catalyst, per the Associated Press, was a March 1990 U.S. Secret Service raid on the Texas offices of game publisher Steve Jackson Games, in which agents seized computer equipment and read customers’ e-mail. On the day it was unveiled, the organization announced that it was representing Steve Jackson Games and several users of the company’s bulletin board system in a lawsuit.
The founding statement set out three aims: educating the public and policymakers about computing and telecommunications, encouraging communication between technologists, government, business and the public about legal concepts for online life, and developing tools to give non-technical users access to computer networks.
Sources
- 01.
Jesdanun, A. (2006). Defending liberties in high-tech world. NBC News (The Associated Press). Associated Press article published 5 July 2006. Independent source for the founding date ('The EFF was born July 10, 1990'), for the founders having met on the online community The WELL, and for the March 1990 Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games in Texas, in which agents seized computer equipment and read customers' e-mail, as the immediate catalyst.
- 02.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Across the Electronic Frontier. (1990). The founding statement, dated 10 July 1990. First-party source for the announcement ('We are founding the Electronic Frontier Foundation to deal with these and related challenges'), its reference to 'the excesses of Operation Sun Devil', and its stated aims of public and policymaker education, communication between technologists, government and the public, and tools for non-technical users. It names Kapor and Barlow as authors, not Gilmore, and does not mention Steve Jackson Games.
- 03.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. EFF History. First-party account. Source for the founding in July 1990 by Mitch Kapor, John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore, 'with assistance from Steve Wozniak'; for Kapor's and Gilmore's backgrounds; and for the organization announcing, on the day it was unveiled, that it was representing Steve Jackson Games and several of its bulletin board users in a lawsuit. Gives the month only; the day comes from the founding statement and the AP article.
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Reviewed Oct 25, 2026Recent changes
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