The Bobs voting begins

An international jury sorted through over 4,800 entries to put together a list of the top online activism projects and websites. Now it's up to Internet users around the world to vote for their favorites in each of the contest's 14 languages.

The Bobs nominees represent a cross-section of the creative and multifaceted work being done online and off by activists around the world. Often working under difficult and dangerous conditions, or under repressive regimes, groups of people still struggle to enact democratic reforms and demand the right to freedom of expression.

To keep up with online developments, The Bobs awards were updated in 2015 and now feature three multilingual categories that cover key areas of current social and political engagement online: Social Change, Privacy & Security, and Arts & Media.

Freedom of Speech Award

As part of the restructured contest, the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award was given to imprisoned Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi at the end of February. This special award represents Deutsche Welle's way of honoring a person or initiative that takes a strong stand to support freedom of expression in the digital world.

Polls are open

Descriptions of all the nominees for The Bobs 2015 can be found at thebobs.com. Online voting for the winners of the 14 People's Choice Awards is open until May 3. The Bobs' jury members will meet at the beginning of May in Berlin to decide the winners of the three multilingual categories.

All of the winners of this year's awards will be announced on May 3. The winner of the Freedom of Speech Award and the multilingual categories will be honored on June 23 at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany.