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Aaron Swartz
Technology Activism & Humanitarian

Aaron Swartz

Programmer and activist who helped create RSS, Reddit and Creative Commons

8 November 1986 – 11 January 2013 United States Verified by our editors
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Lived
26 yrs
1986 – 2013
Works listed
2
Specification, Essay
Honours
2
Most recent 2013
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Aaron Swartz was an American programmer, writer and internet activist. As a teenager he helped create the RSS 1.0 feed format and the technical architecture of Creative Commons, and he was a co-owner of Reddit. He campaigned for open access to information and died by suicide in 2013 while facing federal charges.

Biography

Teenage programmer

Swartz grew up near Chicago and taught himself to program. At 14 he joined the working group that wrote the RSS 1.0 specification, and he helped design the metadata of Creative Commons licences.

Reddit

After a term at Stanford he joined Y Combinator in 2005; his company Infogami merged with Reddit, making him a co-owner. Condé Nast bought Reddit in 2006.

Activism

Swartz founded Demand Progress, which helped lead the 2012 campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). He also co-created Open Library and SecureDrop’s predecessor.

Prosecution and death

In 2011 he was arrested for downloading millions of academic articles from JSTOR through MIT’s network. Facing federal charges carrying long potential sentences, he died by suicide in January 2013 aged 26. His death led to debate about computer-crime law and prosecutorial overreach.

Timeline

  1. 1986

    Born in Highland Park, Illinois, United States

  2. 2000

    Joins the RSS 1.0 working group aged 14

  3. 2002

    Creative Commons metadata work

  4. 2005

    Joins Reddit

  5. 2006

    Reddit sold to Condé Nast

  6. 2010

    Founds Demand Progress

  7. 2011

    Arrested over JSTOR downloads

  8. 2012

    Campaign against SOPA

  9. 2013

    Dies

  10. 2013

    Died, aged 26

Notable works

  • 2000

    RSS 1.0 Specification

    Co-author.

  • 2008

    Guerilla Open Access Manifesto Essay

Awards and honours

  • EFF Pioneer Award

    2013 · Posthumous.

  • Internet Hall of Fame

    2013

Did you know?

  1. 1

    The documentary The Internet’s Own Boy (2014) tells his story.

  2. 2

    A proposed “Aaron’s Law” sought to reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

  3. 3

    He co-wrote the web.py framework used by early Reddit.

Connections

Related people

Also born on 8 November

Frequently asked

Who is Aaron Swartz?

Aaron Swartz was an American programmer, writer and internet activist. As a teenager he helped create the RSS 1.0 feed format and the technical architecture of Creative Commons, and he was a co-owner of Reddit. He campaigned for open access to information and died by suicide in 2013 while facing federal charges.

When did Aaron Swartz die?

Aaron Swartz died on 11 January 2013 at the age of 26.

Where is Aaron Swartz from?

Aaron Swartz was born in Highland Park, Illinois, United States.

What is Aaron Swartz known for?

Aaron Swartz is best known for RSS 1.0; co-founding Reddit; Creative Commons technology; SOPA activism.

What awards has Aaron Swartz received?

Notable honours include EFF Pioneer Award (2013), Internet Hall of Fame (2013).

References

  1. Aaron Swartz — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Aaron Swartz — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Aaron Swartz — IMDb. IMDb. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Aaron Swartz — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  5. Aaron Swartz — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  6. Official website. www.aaronsw.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  7. Aaron Swartz (Q302817) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Aaron Swartz”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Official website Website X (Twitter) Wikipedia
Filed under Internet activismOpen accessReddit ActivistComputer ProgrammerWriter

About this profile

Cite this page

“Aaron Swartz.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/aaron-swartz

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