"Managed by the US state department and the US Agency for Global Media, the programme broadly called Internet Freedom funds small groups all over the world, from Iran to China to the Philippines, who built grassroots technologies to evade internet controls imposed by governments. It has dispensed well over $500m (370m) in the past decade, according to an analysis by the Guardian, including $94m in 2024."
"Career employees who staffed Internet Freedom resigned or were sacked in 2025 as part of larger reductions. Many of its programmes were cut permanently; its main granting office issued no money in 2025. The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a nonprofit that works with the government to direct roughly half of this money, won a lawsuit to get some of this funding restored in December; the Trump administration is now appealing against that ruling."
"The cuts risk curtailing technologies that helped Iranians to coordinate during recent anti-government protests, and that allowed videos and images of massacres to reach the outside world. They could have a major impact in other nations too; the efforts of groups in Myanmar to get past the junta's digital iron curtain, and the ability of users in China to avoid surveillance."
US funding sustained a global Internet Freedom programme for nearly two decades to prevent the internet from splintering under authoritarian control. The State Department and US Agency for Global Media managed grants for grassroots technologies that helped users in Iran, China and the Philippines evade government internet controls. The programme distributed over $500m in the past decade, including $94m in 2024. Major cuts and staffing reductions in 2025 halted grant-making, and many programs were permanently cut. The Open Technology Fund won a December lawsuit restoring some funding, which the administration is appealing. The US also withdrew from the Freedom Online Coalition in January.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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