Free Software Foundation

Following the 2021 Stallman reinstatement crisis, the FSF board undertook governance reforms between 2021-2024. The board amended bylaws to protect FSF licenses, drafted a board member agreement, developed a board code of ethics, and opened a board seat to a union-elected staff member in 2021. In 2023, associate members gained the ability to make board nominations. In June 2024, three new board members were elected using a newly designed process with associate member input. A board member review process began October 2024, reviewing five sitting members including Stallman, who were all re-confirmed in April 2025.

The FSF's Defective by Design campaign continued its longstanding fight against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) through annual International Day Against DRM events from 2020-2023, targeting streaming services (2020), Disney+ (2021), digital sharing restrictions (2022), and DRM in public libraries via OverDrive and Follett Destiny (2023). The FSF also successfully pushed for new DMCA anticircumvention exemptions in 2021, helping secure legal protections for users who need to bypass DRM for ethical and legitimate purposes. The campaign frames DRM as a threat to innovation, privacy, and user freedom.

The FSF has sustained advocacy campaigns against proprietary surveillance technology and for user privacy. Key efforts include maintaining comprehensive documentation of proprietary surveillance practices by companies like Microsoft and Apple, publishing the Email Self-Defense Guide for encryption, campaigning against centralized web services that enable mass surveillance like PRISM, and advocating for decentralized free software alternatives. The FSF frames software freedom as essential to privacy, arguing that proprietary software inherently enables surveillance since users cannot inspect what the software does with their data.

In late 2022, the FSF in conjunction with the Software Freedom Conservancy released an updated report on its Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement. The principles establish that the FSF's primary goal in GPL enforcement is to bring about compliance, with legal action as a last resort. Compliance actions are primarily education and assistance processes to aid those not following the license. The FSF also updated its bylaws to require 66% board approval for any new GPL versions, strengthening stewardship of the license that underpins the free software ecosystem.

In March 2021, the FSF quietly reinstated Richard Stallman to its board of directors, announced without prior notice to staff or the community at the LibrePlanet 2021 conference. Stallman had resigned in 2019 after making controversial comments defending Marvin Minsky in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The reinstatement triggered massive backlash: an open letter with 3000+ signatures demanded removal of Stallman and the entire board. Over 41 organizations including Red Hat, Mozilla, GNOME Foundation, EFF, SUSE, and Software Freedom Conservancy condemned the decision. Red Hat suspended all FSF funding. Three senior staff (executive director, deputy director, CTO) and board member Kat Walsh resigned in protest. The FSF board doubled down in April 2021, defending the decision.