Here's Why I Built a Global Protest Tracker
People are pissed. Don't let anyone tell you anything different.
We’re living through one of the most globally active protest moments in recent history. The through-lines are striking: economic inequality, democratic erosion, environmental destruction, and a generation that refuses to accept the status quo. These movements are connected even when they don’t know it and understanding those connections is how we understand where the world is actually headed.
People are in the streets everywhere. From Serbia to Argentina, Nepal to Iran, Albania to the United States. Gen Z is toppling governments. Workers are blocking highways. Students are occupying universities. Environmental defenders are marching by the thousands.
And yet, if you rely on mainstream news to tell you this story, you’d barely know it’s happening.
That disconnect is exactly why I built the Global Protest Tracker.
What I Couldn’t Find Elsewhere
I kept learning about incredible movements happening around the world. Protests that shared roots, tactics, and demands were being covered as isolated incidents. A story about Serbia here. A headline about Kenya there. There’s wasn’t any connective tissue. No lifecycle. No follow-up on what actually happened after the cameras left.
The tools that did exist were built for researchers, not regular people. The Carnegie Endowment has a solid academic tracker. ACLED provides gold-standard conflict data. But if you’re a person who just wants to understand what’s happening in the world right now, where movements are, what sparked them, where they’re headed, and whether they worked, there was nothing designed for you.
So I built it. With a lot of help from Claude Code (yep, I built this with AI) and a belief that this information should be accessible and contextualized. See? AI can be used for good! 😊
The #1 Question I Get: “Where Do You Source Your Information?”
Transparency matters, especially when you’re tracking something this politically charged. The full methodology is on the Sources page, but here’s the overview:
Automated RSS monitoring: The tracker pulls from 16 curated RSS feeds daily. Each are outlets chosen for credible, independent protest and human rights coverage. The core global feeds include Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC World, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Bellingcat. For investigative depth, I pull from ProPublica, OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), Coda Story, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and Forbidden Stories. Regional specialists include Rappler for Southeast Asia, Caucasian Knot for the Caucasus (designated a “foreign agent” by Russia, which tells you they’re doing something right), and People’s Dispatch for labor and social movement coverage.
How matching works: Every article goes through a pipeline. First, URLs are checked against a curated domain allowlist. No tabloids, aggregators, or state propaganda outlets make the cut. Then a war filter removes articles about military operations (airstrikes, missile attacks, etc.) even if they mention a protest country. Finally, each movement has its own keyword fingerprints. Specific terms like “no kings,” “50501,” or “mahsa amini”, for example, are checked. An article has to match at least one to get assigned. The allowlist includes wire services (Reuters, AP, AFP), major papers (NYT, Washington Post, Financial Times), human rights organizations, and trusted regional outlets.
Daily manual research: Beyond the automated feeds, I do a daily web search for global protest news to catch anything the RSS pipeline might miss. (And if I miss something, there’s a suggest button on the site.)
What the Tracker Actually Tracks
Right now, the Global Protest Tracker is monitoring 44 movements across the world. Each one includes:
What sparked it: the trigger event
Where it is in its lifecycle: from Ignition through Escalation, Inflection, Fading, and Outcome
Status: Active, Fading, Dormant, Suppressed, or Resolved
Scale: Local, National, Regional, or Global
A “Demands Met” assessment: because the most important question about any protest is: did it work?
The headlines ticker on the site gives you a real-time pulse. Iran: suppressed, 7,000+ deaths documented. Serbia: students holding university blockades. Nepal: elections triggered after Gen Z ousted leadership. Argentina: water cannons deployed against union members. The 50501 movement: 200+ organizations coordinating actions across all 50 US states.
What Future Updates Will Look Like
I’m going to start sending regular Substack updates when I add new movements or when significant developments happen in tracked ones. Here’s what that looks like:
NEW: Chile’s Anti-Kast Environmental Rollback Protests
Status: Active
Trigger: One day after taking office on March 11, 2026, President José Antonio Kast scrapped 43 environmental protection decrees enacted under his predecessor Gabriel Boric, including protections for Darwin frog, Humboldt penguins, national parks, and emissions regulations.
Scale: National — protests in 15+ cities from Arica to Punta Arenas
Key Event: On March 22 (World Water Day), thousands marched to La Moneda presidential palace under the slogan “Don’t Kast-igate Nature.” Organizers noted that 1.4 million Chileans still lack access to drinking water. Riot police detained protesters in Santiago.
Context: Kast is Chile’s most right-wing president since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990. His administration frames environmental regulations as obstacles to economic growth, while activists argue the rollbacks serve extractive industries at the expense of communities and ecosystems.
Demands Met Score: Too early to assess. Movement is in Ignition/Escalation phase.
Lifecycle Stage: Ignition
Read more:
PBS/AP: Thousands of Chileans protest Kast’s environmental rollbacks
Al Jazeera: Chile’s President Kast tosses out dozens of environmental protections
AFP News Agency: Clashes in Chile as thousands protest President Kast’s environmental rollbacks
Why This Matters NOW
Here's something I need you to hear: you aren’t alone. If you've been feeling like the world is falling apart and nobody's doing anything about it, that’s a story Western major media is telling you intentionally. People are doing something about it: millions of them, all over the world, right now. Major outlets just aren't covering it in a way that lets you see the full picture (if they cover it at all). This tracker exists because I want you to not only feel empowered but hopeful that people are showing up and not standing for the bullshit.
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Explore the tracker: globalprotesttracker.com