The common law study group that moved off surveilled platforms
A 60-member group studying constitutional rights, common law, and lawful responses to overreach needed a private, secure space to share legal resources, discuss cases, and coordinate — on a platform that couldn't be pressured to hand over their data.
Better than Facebook wasn't good enough
A 60-member group studying constitutional rights, common law, and lawful responses to overreach needed a private, secure space to share legal resources, discuss cases, and coordinate lawful responses. They had been on Telegram, which — while better than Facebook — was not end-to-end encrypted by default and had no governance mechanism for the group itself.
Members were increasingly concerned about having sensitive discussions on a platform that could be pressured to hand over data. They also wanted a more structured approach to shared legal resources than pinned messages in a chat.
Encryption, structure, and a real vote
The group migrated to ETC primarily for the encryption guarantee. Messages are encrypted on the sender's device before transmission — ETC technically cannot read them. This is not a policy promise; it is architecture.
The Community Action tools give them structured incident reporting — members can document incidents, attach evidence, and share case files only with specified members. The forum replaced their pinned messages with a searchable, categorised legal resource library — cases, templates, guides, and references organised by topic.
The governance tools mean every member votes on decisions. When the group decided to widen membership to trusted referrals from existing members, that decision was formally proposed, discussed, and voted on — with the record preserved permanently.
What changed — concretely
What this group runs on
Encrypted messaging, a legal library & a vote
Encrypted messaging and groups, a searchable legal resource forum, community-action incident tools, group governance and a secure vault — all composed on one membership. Full case management unlocks at the Trusted level. Modular pricing starts from £4/month.
Other communities using ETC
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