Hundreds of millions eyeballs, courtesy of our AP partnership

Through our partnership with world leading media agency the Associated Press (AP), we can offer Bambuser users an unprecedented distribution platform of their newsworthy content. This is an opt-in that is designed to give the Bambuser broadcaster full credit for the content whenever it's re-broadcasted by any of AP's clients.

This week, one of our broadcasters "Homslive" located in Homs, Syria aired a redoubtable broadcast of the intense shelling of the city. The user had opted in to allow AP to distribute the content and the broadcast ended up on air over 600 times across 80+ networks in five continents. The live video, captured by one man with a camera and an Internet connection, reached hundreds of millions of people across the globe – in real time, with no edits or cuts.

While tragic and and heartbreaking, the video is important for a number of reasons. It shows a raw, unedited and different side of the story. The story of how ordinary people live through a war. It also provides access to areas where no other news organizations are able to go.


As the media landscape transforms, we think there is a lot of room for innovation and change within this space. We believe that this is the time for the world to become more open, more transparent. We also believe that this is the time for You to grab the opportunity and be a part of the news. If you want access to global distribution of any newsworthy content you may capture, review our blog post about how to allow AP to redistribute your videos and to get in touch with you.

For full transparency; Bambuser is not getting paid by AP for any specific videos or per video. However we do have a commercial agreement that allow AP's request for usage to be exposed to our users. We also work closely to evaluate and develop new ways for "the people on the street" to share the news to a global audience.

Bambuser user "Homslive" broadcast live on BBC, CNN, Sky News and AlJazeera

Today we saw heavy shelling of Homs, Syria. It's heartbreaking to witness events like this unveiling before our eyes. At Bambuser we've always done our best to help people in areas of unrest getting their message out, especially when external forces are trying to censor or prevent footage from coming out.

One Bambuser user named Abo Mohamad Ibraahim aka "Homslive", today broadcasted live for almost 3 hours from a rooftop somewhere in Homs. It's a terrifying but very important piece of video. It's raw and unedited, showing the brutality of a ruthless war on civilians. Though repeatedly asked by people in the chatroom to seek cover at a safer place, Abo Mohamad Ibraahim told the viewers that he was determined to stay at his position and keep the live broadcast going, allowing the world to witness the desperate fight of the Syrian people.

His live feed was viewed by tens of thousands of people on bambuser.com as well as re-distributed to a global multi million audience through  major broadcasters such as BBC, CNN, Sky News and AlJazeera

Abo Mohamed Ibraahahim is part of the Sham News Network (S.N.N.) and is S.N.N.'s manger in Homs. S.N.N. is an important part of the Syrian opposition, ensuring that information about what's happening in Syria is communicated to the world. To follow and learn more about S.N.N. you can read more on their English Facebook page or their Arabic Facebook page.

Bambuser was founded with a fundamental mission: To democratize the power of live video broadcasting. We're dedicated to stay true to our mission

Free speech, free premium

At Bambuser we truly believe in free speech and democracy. Over the past years we've seen more and more activists and citizen journalists use Bambuser to broadcast real-time information about activities and events when they happen. We think that user generated content broadens the overall picture of what's actually going on, and is needed to complement professional news reporting. It can also, as we've seen for example in Syria, break news for the world to see. When traditional media has little or no possibilities to have journalists on site, user generated live streams are essential.

With this is mind, we've decided to give away a special* free Bambuser premium status to activists and citizen journalist users who apply, no matter where in the world they operate. If you'd like to apply, please send an email with your Bambuser username and a brief description of your content, to info@bambuser.com, and we'll be happy to upgrade you. We believe videos from areas with unrest should be ad-free and we also think you should have the opportunity to learn more about your viewers.

If you also want to make your broadcasts available to media outlets around the world via Associated Press, make sure to tick the Allow AP check box in the Settings on your dashboard. If you want to know more about this cooperation, see our blog post Let Associated Press contact you about newsworthy content.

*Ad free player, unlimited viewing hours and storage, player customization options and access to extensive statistics.

Bambuser under attack

Yesterday Bambuser went down for a few hours. We were for the first time subjected to a severe Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The attack was apparently aimed mainly at Russian citizen journalist users.

We have confirmed that the computers taking part in the attack are part of a known bot network. This botnet is available for rent according to our sources.

Although the attack is still in effect, we have managed to limit the damage. Many thanks for all the patience, support and practical help.

What happened?

May 9, 11:30 CET
We noticed an unusual spike in the load on our servers. This traffic quickly grew while our tech team worked hard on making our site accessible again.

May 9, 13:47 CET
After analyzing the situation, we concluded this was a distributed denial of service attack and informed our users on Twitter.

May 9, 15:19 CET
Bambuser was up and running again, although still under a heavy load from the attack. A few users may unfortunately be affected by our efforts to block the attack.

After 15:19 CET
We have continued our work on minimizing the effect of the attack, which continued with varying strength (and is still going on at the time of writing).

Technical info about the attack

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a huge flood of network packets intended to take up resources and prevent other people from accessing content. There is no hacking/cracking involved.

As is the nature of DDoS bot networks, the computers that are part of a botnet are often normal PCs in home and office environments and the users are usually not aware that their machine is infected and part of a bot network.

Hence, even though the sources of the network packets are known, it does not mean that one has identified the real origin of the attack.

DDoS attack described on wikipedia.

We're back up again

After hours under attack, we're back up again. We're still under heavy load, but hopefully all will be back to normal very soon.  Many thanks for your patience and empathy.

بعد ساعات تحت الهجوم، ونحن حتى يعود مرة أخرى. ما زلنا تحت الحمل الثقيل، ولكن نأمل جميعا سوف يعود إلى وضعها الطبيعي في وقت قريب جدا. شكرا جزيلا على صبركم والتعاطف.

После нескольких часов под угрозой, мы снова. Мы до сих пор под нагрузкой,но, надеюсь, все вернется к нормальному очень скоро. Большое спасибо за ваше терпение и сочувствие.