Country Highlighter Chromium

• browser-extension
• transparency

A Chromium browser extension enabling you to highlight people and organizations from and content about specific countries on social media platforms (optionally on all websites), to inform following, blocking, and other decisions.

Add to your browserBuy commercial license

This extension does not collect or share any data with IA Defensa or third parties. The source code is available for auditing. The extension is free for personal use.

Features

• All countries included: Pre-configured with all countries
• Multi-language support: Detects country names in English, German, French, Spanish, and other languages
  • Additional translations are being worked on and are welcome for integration
• Flag detection: Automatically recognizes country flag emoji (🇪🇸, 🇨🇳, etc.)
• Configurable highlighting: Choose from three highlight levels:
  • Subtle: Underline matched terms
  • Normal: Yellow background on matched text (screen readers: polite announcement)
  • Assertive: Yellow background and page border (screen readers: assertive announcement)
• Platform support: Works on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, GitHub, Bluesky, and many Mastodon instances; optionally on all websites
• Performance optimized: Uses MutationObserver with debouncing for efficient dynamic content scanning

Installation

1. Go to the IA Defensa Country Highlighter page in the Chrome Web Store
2. Click “Add to Chrome” (or equivalent for other Chromium browsers)

Afterwards, configure the extension according to your preferences and consider pinning it to your toolbar for easy access.

Tip: Enable the extension in private mode (“Allow in Incognito”). The extension does not share any information with IA Defensa or third parties.

Usage

Quick Start

1. Click the extension icon in your toolbar
2. Confirm the extension is enabled
3. Click “Open settings” to configure

Configuration

Click the extension icon to navigate to the settings page:

• Highlight style: Choose subtle, normal, or assertive highlighting
• Countries: Select which countries to highlight (all enabled by default)
• Platforms: Choose which social media platforms to monitor
• Highlight on all websites: Extend highlighting beyond configured platforms (may affect performance on complex pages)

Default Settings

• All countries enabled
• All platforms enabled
• Normal highlighting (yellow background)

How It Works

1. Primary matching (fast): Scans for flag emoji first
2. Alias matching (thorough): Then checks for country names in multiple languages
3. Word boundary detection: Avoids false positives (e.g., “Germany” won’t match “many”)
4. Dynamic content: Monitors page changes with MutationObserver (300 ms debounce)
5. Performance: Only scans visible text nodes, skips scripts/styles

Privacy

• No data collection: Extension operates entirely locally
• No network requests: All configuration files are bundled
• Chrome sync only: Settings synced via Chrome’s built-in sync (optional)

Troubleshooting

Highlighting not working:

1. Check extension is enabled (click toolbar icon)
2. Verify current site is in platform list (“Settings” → “Platforms”), or enable “Highlight on all websites”
3. Ensure at least one country is selected (“Settings” → “Countries”)
4. Try refreshing the page

Performance issues:

1. Reduce number of enabled countries
2. Switch to “subtle” highlighting mode
3. Disable “Highlight on all websites” if enabled

Settings not saving:

1. Check Chrome/Edge sync is enabled
2. Try clearing extension storage (“Reset to defaults”)
3. Reload extension from chrome://extensions/ (or equivalent)