#49: The time to act is now
A Q&A with digital strategist and protest platform founder, Hansel McKoy
Protests.
They’re all over the news right now. Iranian women, Just Stop Oil climate activists, Marching Mummies for childcare reform—everywhere around the world, people are fighting for change.
But safe and lawful protests are not a given. Today’s Q&A guest wants to change that.
Meet Hansel McKoy. He’s spent years empowering creatives and non-profits through digital and marketing strategy. Now, he’s on a mission to build the world’s leading protest platform. Here’s why 👇
What led you to found Protests Global? And why is now the right time for a platform like this to exist?
Political protests have become more widespread and more frequent around the world. The UK's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 demonstrates the growing importance for protesters to know their rights—because it widens the range of situations where police officers can place conditions on protests:
A 'buffer zone' around Parliament
Noise-based restrictions
A ban on one-person protests
Police having the power to restrict public assemblies
A ban on the wilful obstruction of the highway
All of this has now been signed into law.
This was despite the thousands who protested against it. The UK's 2021 'Kill the Bill' marches demonstrated the strength of feeling against the Bill and pushed it to the front of the news agenda. Almost 1 million people signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped.
Looking at this landscape, I realised the growing need for our right to be heard. The rest is history.
I founded Protests Global to create a world where everyone has the right and the means to make their voices heard. The platform exists because I asked myself:
Why aren't our human rights easier to understand?
Why aren't we able to find out if protests are legal before we attend them?
Why shouldn't it be easy to find upcoming protests around issues we care about?
Why isn't investment going into making protests safer and more innovative?
How are we responding to the surge in protest movements around the world?
Once I understood these problems were unaddressed globally, I decided to create the solution. I want to solve the lack of education we have around our human rights and provide a platform that empowers activists and mission-led organisations to find, organise, and promote events online. The time for action is now!
You mentioned that you wanted to tread carefully when stepping into the protest space. Why is that?
There are risks involved in protesting that demand a considered approach. Protests are divisive, disruptive, passionate, and often political. So the risks before us as the first Protest-focused platform are evident. However, I believe growing our movement from a foundation of clear values will enable us to navigate the challenges ahead. The Protests Global community guidelines are Legality, Respect, and Safety. Our core values are Trust, Empowerment, and Community. In practice, this means:
Only accepting the protests considered legal within the planned protest location. We rely on our community guidelines, local protest laws, and international human rights laws (where relevant) to determine which protests may be posted.
Mitigating the promotion of illegal and hateful protests by responding to use information in our protest submission form. This way, we can determine if events adhere to our guidelines alongside the protesting laws that apply within the planned location.
Educating the public on how to conduct lawful protests and best achieve change.
You're at the beginning of an inspiring journey that's involved a lot of researching and networking. What has surprised you the most about the journey so far?
Developing Protests Global has involved months of research, planning, and relationship building. The kindness, generosity, and inspiration of those who have dedicated their lives to this space has been incredible. The lawyers, consultants, protest organisers, and human rights community—they've all helped me refine my mission.
Another thing I've discovered is how underserved protesters are by the existing platforms they use. Social channels offer reach without functionality, individual groups often lack visibility, media coverage fails to display key information, and all current platforms are ill-equipped to deal with the organisation of controversial protests. When people aren't heard, public anger leads to more disruptive protests. That, in turn, leads to greater restrictions on our human rights, thus creating a vicious cycle. When this happens, the important messages behind the protests become overshadowed by the protestors' methods. That increases the gap between caring and action. I believe in a better way.
It's October 2025. What impact has Protests Global had? How have you made that happen?
Protests Global is a Community Interest Company, which means we exist to benefit the community rather than private stakeholders. Our model enables us to combine the ambition and growth trajectory of a tech company with legal independence from political parties, governments, and similar organisations. Our goal is to deliver long-term technological development, education, and partnerships that create lasting change to how protests are conducted and lead to impact.
By 2025, Protest Global aims to be Europe's established platform for finding and organising protests online:
Helping activists and mission-led organisations grow their movements globally
Supporting governments and press officials by empowering the public to voice their opinions peacefully and legally
Connecting people to causes they care about.
By 2027, we aim to be the world's leading Protest platform—amassing 10 million protest attendees and 30 thousand annual supporters!
You spent a decade helping non-profit organisations get better at Digital. What motivated you to work in this space?
The motivation was simple: do what I love for causes I care about and make a positive impact with my work.
At the start of the pandemic, I took that motivation further and went freelance. I created my own initiative called Progression Lab, which leverages my personal brand to provide digital strategy training resources and services for creatives. It was the biggest risk I'd ever taken as I was risking how people saw me, but it was worth it. I can now independently support creatives and non-profits through digital marketing services, workshops, and learning resources.
Since 2021 I've been working with the Arts Council England's Digital Culture Network, whose mission is to close the major digital skills gap within the UK's non-profit and Arts organisations. We do that by providing one-to-one support, practical workshops, training days, and more. During our first year, we engaged with over 300 national portfolio organisations and another 300 arts and cultural organisations across England. There's evidence that giving non-profits access to actionable and sector-relevant resources leads to tangible change. I'm humbled to be a part of that.
What three books or other media have impacted you most and why?
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. van der Kolk — this book greatly impacted my self-growth and perception of healing.
The Diary of A CEO Live by Steven Bartlett — this live show about entrepreneurship inspired me to pursue Protests Global, even when it was only a seed of an idea.
Liberty Human Rights — this non-profit has become an indispensable online resource for learning about UK human rights law.
Want to support Hansel? DM him on LinkedIn and make a donation to Protests Global here.
Thanks as always for reading!
Lauren