We're Not Afraid

We’re Not Afraid launched within hours of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The site invited people worldwide to submit photographs declaring they were not intimidated by terrorism. Built on the MoblogUK infrastructure I had co-founded, it became one of the earliest viral citizen-response platforms.

Within the first week, over 7,000 images were submitted, with 5-6 new photos arriving per minute at peak. By the time the site wound down in 2007, more than 25,000 images had been submitted from dozens of countries. A team of 10 volunteers managed incoming submissions around the clock.

The project was covered by CNN, BBC, Sky News, ABC World News Tonight, and The New York Times. It was the subject of a BBC documentary and an exhibition at London’s Proud Gallery in September 2005. Academic analysis was published in Millennium: Journal of International Studies in 2006.

After the 21 July attempted bombings, the site became “We Are STILL Not Afraid.” The phrase resurfaced as a meme following the 2017 London terror attack, over a decade after the original.