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== Usenet: Network News Free Speech Network ==

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## Contents ##

1. Introduction
2. Ways to access Usenet
3. Links to Usenet hosts and software
4. Rough traffic count

Do you remember Network News, AKA Usenet? At over 40 years old, Usenet is the original ‘social network’. Usenet is the oldest bastion of digital free speech networks.

Usenet is highly resistant to censorship. For decades Usenet has served as a free speech haven. It has also served as a platform for secure and anonymous messaging.

I suspect that many of GenY and GenZ have never heard of Usenet. We can change that. We can alert them to this censorship-resistant network as an alternative to highly censored social media.

## Ways to access Usenet ##

There are multiple ways to access Usenet:

- web front ends
- dedicated graphical clients
- dedicated terminal clients

## Links to Usenet hosts and software ##

Users can access Usenet to read and post by installing free client software or by visiting a host that provides web browser access.

* Free Forum front end for Usenet: https://novabbs.org/

* Free Usenet servers list: https://sybershock.com/#usenet

* Free Usenet reader software:

- Thunderbird https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/
- Betterbird https://www.betterbird.eu/
- Claws Mail https://www.claws-mail.org/
- Sylpheed https://sylpheed.sraoss.jp/en/
- Seamonkey https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

## Rough traffic count ##

A few days ago when I counted, more than 16 thousand articles were posted in Usenet threads in a 24-hour period. I checked today as of a few minutes past midnight GMT, and almost 12 thousand articles were posted in the past 24-hour period. At this rate about 4.4 million articles would be posted in a single year.

Share this information with your friends!

#Usenet #NNTP #NetworkNews #SocialMedia #SocialNetworks #FreeSpeech #Censorship