U.S. funding break leaves Iran internet freedom projects in peril

"The State Department hasnot signed off on new funding for programs that help Iranian citizens evade government restrictions on the internet and communications, potentially crippling a policy that has bipartisan support and aligns with the Trump administration's strategy of "maximum pressure" on Tehran. The programs were first affected by a broad pause on foreign assistance that President Donald Trump enacted when he entered office in January."

"If funding is not allocated by the end of September, it will be returned to the Treasury. At least one provider of free virtual private network (VPN) technology to Iranians plans to shut down if it does not receive private funding. Collectively, the groups affected by the pause provide censorship circumvention tools to millions of Iranians. "The overall impact will be huge when these tools go offline," said a senior executive at one of the State Department's implementing partners."

"One nonprofit that previously received State Department funding, NetFreedom Pioneers (NFP), this month stopped providing its Toosheh service, which transmitted bundles of uncensored educational, news and entertainment content to Iranians via satellite filecasting technology. NFP's executive director, Evan Firoozi, said in a statement that the halt was "due to a funding freeze by the U.S. Department of State." Since its launch, Toosheh has served at least 3 million Iranians and transmitted 300,000 files that were otherwise inaccessible because of government censorship, Firoozi said in an interview."

U.S. funding approvals for programs that enable Iranians to bypass internet and communications restrictions remain unsigned, leaving solicitations for Iran-based projects unissued months after a January foreign assistance pause. If funding is not allocated by the end of September, the money will return to the Treasury. At least one VPN provider plans to shut down without private funding, and multiple groups that deliver censorship-circumvention tools could go offline. NetFreedom Pioneers halted its Toosheh satellite filecasting service, which reached at least 3 million Iranians and transmitted 300,000 otherwise inaccessible files, citing a State Department funding freeze.

Read at The Washington Post