Exit Chat Control

A free, multilingual field guide to escape Chat Control and take back control of your digital privacy: encrypted messaging, email, VPN, DNS, 2FA, Linux, GrapheneOS, self-hosting, and more. Every tool is presented with what it does, who it's for, and how to install it.

🔗 Live site: https://exitchatcontrol.org

What is this?

In July 2026, the European Parliament let the "Chat Control" machinery advance — the amended text now sits with the Council, and the permanent version (CSAR, "Chat Control 2.0") is still being negotiated. This project is a practical, no-nonsense answer: a guide referencing privacy-respecting tools anyone can use to opt out of mass surveillance, from the everyday citizen to the whistleblower.

Its promises, all enforced by tests:

• Static and self-contained — no tracker, no cookie, not a single request to a third-party domain.
• Readable with JavaScript disabled (Tor Browser "safest" mode included) — scripts only power the theme, filters, checklist and quiz.
• Multilingual by design — every language is a real prerendered route with correct hreflang; adding one means adding translation files, not touching code.
• Educational quiz — /quiz scores your censorship resistance on a 0–100 scale and points you at concrete fixes in the guide. Server-rendered questions and scoring key (readable with JS off); the score itself is computed locally in the browser, nothing sent or stored.
• Printable and mirrorable — a single-file offline version ships with every build.

Stack

Astro (static output, built-in i18n routing) · Tailwind CSS v4 (design tokens, light-dark() theming) · TypeScript strict · Vitest (content integrity, i18n parity, domain allowlist) · Playwright + axe (no-JS readability, zero-third-party-request guarantee, WCAG AA) · Docker (multi-stage build → nginx). Package manager: pnpm.

pnpm install
pnpm dev                # develop on http://localhost:4321
pnpm build              # static site + offline artifact in dist/
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up preview   # prod-like: nginx + security headers on :8080

Production deploys docker-compose.yml (single nginx service behind the platform's reverse proxy — Coolify, etc.), or point any static host at pnpm build → dist/.

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome — a tool to add, a translation, a correction. Read CONTRIBUTING.md first: it contains three simple rules for tools (traction, open source, privacy-respecting), a mandatory affiliation-disclosure policy, and a CI-enforced external-link policy. Large changes start with an issue, not a PR.

Not comfortable with code? Open an issue with the app's name, its link, and why it qualifies, and it will be added for you.

License

See LICENSE.

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Privacy is a right, not a confession. To encrypt is to vote. To self-host is to disobey. To reclaim your tools is to become ungovernable.