Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack. All communications by Freenet nodes are encrypted and routed through other nodes that make it difficult to see who is requesting for what content.
Users of Freenet contribute by giving their bandwidth and a part of their hard disk space(data store). Freenet doesn’t allow the user to control what data to be stored. Instead, it automatically deletes the files which are not popular. And as they are encryted and stored, it reduces the likelihood of prosecution by persons wishing to censor Freenet content.
Many uses have been found for Freenet other than file sharing – like publishing websites(freesites), communication via message boards, content distribution, etc.
Over 2 million users have downloaded Freenet and it has provided censored content to China and Middle East.