The original concept for Psiphon envisioned an easy-to-use and lightweight Internet proxy, designed to be installed and operated by individual computer users, who would then host private connections for friends and family in countries where the Internet is censored. According to Nart Villeneuve, "The idea is to get (users) to install this on their computer, and then deliver the location of that circumventor, to people in filtered countries by the means they know to be the most secure. What we're trying to build is a network of trust among people who know each other, rather than a large tech network that people can just tap into." Psiphon 1.0 was launched by the Citizen Lab on 1 December 2006 as open-source software. In early 2007, Psiphon, Inc. was established as a Canadian corporation independent of the Citizen Lab and the University of Toronto. The original code (1.6) was made available under the
GNU General Public License. In 2008, Psiphon was awarded the
Netexplorateur award by the
French Senate. In 2009, Psiphon was recognized with
The Economist Best New Media Award by
Index on Censorship. In 2011, Psiphon 1.X was officially retired and is no longer actively supported by Psiphon, Inc., or the Citizen Lab. The source of funding came from the European Parliament and the
US State Department Internet Freedom program, administered by the
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). The objective of these grants was to develop Psiphon into a scalable anti-censorship solution capable of supporting large numbers of users across different geographic regions. The core development team grew to include a group of experienced security and encryption software engineers that previously developed
Ciphershare, a secure
document management system. In 2010, Psiphon, Inc. began providing services to the
Broadcasting Board of Governors (US),
US Department of State and the
British Broadcasting Corporation. , Psiphon, Inc. operated on the basis revenues generated from commercial operations. Communication via Psiphon played a major role in media coverage of the
2020 Belarusian protests. In 2012, Psiphon, Inc. began development of a mobile version of Psiphon 3 for use with phones running
Android. In April 2024, the
Open Technology Fund (OTF) announced increased long-term funding for several Internet circumvention tools, including Psiphon, to help sustain access for millions of monthly users in China, Iran, and Russia. Subsequent OTF awards to Psiphon totaled US$18.54 million for 2024 and US$5.87 million for 2025. == Censorship events ==