# Open Technology Fund *OTF is a private, non-profit organization funded by the U.S. Agency for Global Media.* ## General - [https://www.opentech.fund/](https://www.opentech.fund/) - The way I found the fund was down a pretty deep rabbithole. I wanted to listen to some podcast while I charted FX pairs, so I pulled up Jordan Peterson. Saw that he had an interview with Yeonmi Park, so I was excited to check that out. The interview blew my mind, and got me really interested in North Korea issues. I found Liberty in North Korea, a non-profit, and watched pretty much all of their YouTube videos. In one of them they mentioned a report called "Compromising Connectivity." I found the author's Twitter account and there was a link in his bio... and that's how I found the Open Technology Fund. - Has an open role called "Technologist": - [https://www.opentech.fund/about/jobs/technologist1/](https://www.opentech.fund/about/jobs/technologist1/) - Funded by the [[United States Agency for Global Media]] ### [[Internet Freedom Festival]] https://internetfreedomfestival.org/ - Seems woke... I'll pass ## Resources ### [OTF Application Guidebook](https://guide.opentech.fund/) *This guide is designed for anyone considering seeking funding from the Open Technology Fund (OTF), a global Internet freedom program.* ## Funds ### [[Internet Freedom Fund]] *The Internet Freedom Fund is OTF's primary way to support projects and people working on open and accessible technology-focused projects that promote human rights, Internet freedom, open societies.* https://www.opentech.fund/funds/internet-freedom-fund/ OTF aims to support technologists and activists bring to life ideas that advance inclusive and safe access to global communications networks, counteract censorship and surveillance, and mitigate digital security threats to Internet freedom specifically for at-risk-users, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists and others living in repressive environments. OTF prioritizes projects coming from individuals or organizations who are applying for the first time, identify as under-represented within the field, and address areas that are underfunded. The Internet Freedom Fund accepts applications on a rolling basis and is done in a two-stage-process. Applications are submitted as concept notes, upon positive review, OTF invites the applicant to submit a full proposal. The projects and people we support all fall into one or more of the following areas: Technology Development, Applied Research, Digital Security Support, or Events. Please visit our [guidebook](https://guide.opentech.fund/) for additional information about our application process. ### [[Rapid Response Fund]] *The Rapid Response Fund aims to facilitate the digital emergency response community to resolve threats in a timely and comprehensive manner for individuals, communities, and organizations whose free expression has recently been repressed. To resolve digital emergencies, OTF offers both direct financial support as well as technical services from trusted partners to high-risk people and organizations, such as bloggers, cyber activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.* https://www.opentech.fund/funds/rapid-response-fund/ ### [[Technology at Scale Fund]] *The Technology at Scale Fund is the primary means through which OTF directly supports the technology needs of USAGM broadcast networks, journalists, and their audiences. Many of these networks serve audiences in countries that attempt to block access to USAGM content and impede journalists’ efforts to report objective news. The Technology at Scale Fund solicits mature technology solutions to ensure that USAGM audiences can access content safely through firewalls and other government attempts to censor objective news and allow journalists to safely do their work and communicate with sources.* https://www.opentech.fund/funds/technology-scale/ # Developments - ## 2021 May - Published with William J. Tolley (Arizona State): "Blind In/On-Path Attacks and Applications to VPNs" - [[sec21fall-tolley Blind In On-Path Attacks and Applications to VPNs.pdf]] - "attackers on the same network as a victim can determine if the victim is using a VPN to connect to a specific website, potentially exploiting the vulnerability to quickly scan a list of banned or targeted websites and determine if someone on the network is accessing them." - ## 2021 June - INVESTIGATIVE SERIES ON XINJIANG DETENTION CAMPS WINS PULITZER PRIZE IN INTERNATIONAL REPORTING - https://www.opentech.fund/news/investigative-series-on-xinjiang-detention-camps-wins-pulitzer-prize-in-international-reporting/ ## Info ### Red Team Lab https://www.opentech.fund/labs/red-team-lab/ ## Save the Open Technology Fund Campaign ### [Keep the Open Technology Fund Open](https://citizenlab.ca/2020/06/keep-the-open-technology-fund-open/) By [[Citizen Lab]] Working to ensure a free, open, and secure Internet requires efforts from a global community. Forming and maintaining a global community is hard work and needs resources and support. The [Open Technology Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/) (OTF) has been a vital pillar in supporting this community Gaining the trust of marginalized and at-risk groups is difficult and can be especially so for US government funded bodies, as many communities (for good reasons) view the US government with suspicion. While being a US-funding body, OTF has built trust and made vital contributions to communities through an open source ethos, a transparent approach to funding, and a commitment to independence, as far as possible, from U.S. administrations under which ultimately they are governed. [Recent developments](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html) in the US Agency for Global Media , which oversees the OTF and US government-funded broadcasting organisations, call into question the ability of OTF to continue its work, maintain its perceived independence, and preserve trust among marginalized and at-risk communities The recently appointed CEO of USAGM, [[Michael Pack]], has taken a number of dramatic actions across the organisation, including: [ousting](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html) Libby Liu, CEO of OTF, along with the heads of Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He has also replaced the USAGM board of directors with individuals who have concerning histories, such as Bethany Kozma who has [campaigned](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/trump-administration-appoints-anti-transgender-activist-to) against transgender access in public school washrooms. Following these moves, the President of OTF, Laura Cunningham, was also fired. These sweeping changes come amidst groups lobbying the USAGM to redirect some of OTF’s resources to a few closed-source circumvention tools. Together these developments raise serious concerns that the USAGM will become a partisan organisation in which the OTF model of transparent funding to open source projects will be sacrificed. The trust that has taken OTF years to build could be lost overnight. Along with supporting many of the open source Internet circumvention tools and privacy enhancing apps that millions of users depend on, OTF has also played a significant role in supporting the study of information controls. Tools, training, and other applied approaches are vital to maintaining a free and open Internet. Independent, impartial research on information controls is an essential foundation as well. Building a field of study around information controls is one of the Citizen Lab’s main strategic goals. OTF has been a key partner in helping us and a wide community of scholars achieve that goal. In 2014, at an Internet Freedom conference, we had a meeting with Dan Meredith, then the Director of OTF. Dan asked us what OTF could do to help our work. We explained to Dan that as a general policy Citizen Lab does not take direct government funding, such as that provided through Internet Freedom programs offered by the US Department of State. This policy is meant to maximize the real and perceived independence of our research, as governments are often the focus of our investigations. However, we understand other groups and organizations make a different choice, and we respect those decisions. While we maintain our policy, we also felt OTF was trying to do something different in the US government funding space and that they were making positive efforts to help the budding community of scholars studying information controls. So we told Dan that rather than fund our group, OTF could establish a fellowship program that directly funds students to work with university-based research organisations (ours and others) to do cutting edge research on how censorship and surveillance affects marginalised groups around the world. Soon after that meeting, the [OTF Information Controls Fellowship Program](https://www.opentech.fund/funds/icfp/) (ICFP) was created. The ICFP has subsequently supported dozens of students and practitioners and helped build a community of information control researchers. The OTF has also been a key supporter of the [Citizen Lab Summer Institute](https://citizenlab.ca/summerinstitute-2019/) (CLSI) which acts as a hands-on workshop for the information controls research community. Through the ICFP and CLSI, ground breaking research with implications for policy and at-risk communities have flourished, including uncovering [insecure child monitoring applications](https://netalert.me/safer-without.html) in Korea, exposing the [Great Cannon](https://citizenlab.ca/2015/04/chinas-great-cannon/)—an attack tool in China used for large scale distributed-denial of service attacks against code sharing platforms and human rights websites—and many other milestones. In the long term, the fellows who go through the ICFP will become the professors, mentors, and supporters of the next generation of students and researchers working to understand information controls and safeguard the free and open Internet. This work was made possible by the contributions of OTF and could only happen through its open approach to funding and management. The encroachments to OTF highlight why independent and transparent funding sources for research and development on Internet freedom are so important. Providing this type of support within a large government organisation can be difficult. OTF was an example of how to do that right. Losing that example will be a loss not only to the practitioners and researchers that have grown through the support of OTF but the wider community of marginalized people they support. – Ron Deibert (Director) and Masashi Crete-Nishihata (Associate Director) ### [Save Internet Freedom: Support the Open Technology Fund](https://saveinternetfreedom.tech/) OTF – the most effective tool the U.S. Congress has in the fight to safeguard the internet as a secure democratic space – serves as a critical funder in the global fight for internet freedom. Today, more than two billion people around the world rely on technologies supported by the non-profit’s work to communicate securely, circumvent censorship, and combat authoritarianism. Yet when controversial political appointee Michael Pack took over OTF’s primary funding agency in June 2020, he inexplicably attacked the bipartisan organization – attempting to fire its Board of Directors and key officers, and cripple its essential projects by denying them their Congressionally allocated internet freedom funds. These brazen, unilateral moves jeopardized the lives of millions of people around the world. But thanks to the unwavering support of the internet freedom community, OTF fought back and refused to be dismantled or co-opted for partisan purposes. In the months that followed, over 500 [organizations](https://saveinternetfreedom.tech/orgs/) and thousands of [individuals](https://saveinternetfreedom.tech/individuals/) united under the #SaveInternetFreedom banner and signed a [letter](https://saveinternetfreedom.tech/information/letter-to-congress/) demanding Congress intervene to protect OTF. In Washington, key politicians on [both](https://twitter.com/HouseForeignGOP/status/1289262070169571330) [sides](https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/schiff-raskin-engel-colleagues-send-letter-to-appropriations-subcommittee-to-bolster-oversight-of-us-agency-for-global-media) of the aisle spoke out in defense of the organization. And as the movement gained momentum, a multi-pronged legal battle ensued to save OTF, restore its Board and key officers, and unlock the unjustly withheld Congressional funds. This hard work paid off. On January 20, 2021, Pack submitted his [](https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958875488/voice-of-america-ceo-pack-defined-by-scandal-resigns-at-bidens-request)[resignation](https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958875488/voice-of-america-ceo-pack-defined-by-scandal-resigns-at-bidens-request) in the wake of mounting legal losses and scathing publicity, and OTF's independence, operations, and funding were quickly restored by USAGM's new leadership. With its bipartisan Board and expert leadership restored, OTF today continues on in its vital role as a key funding partner in the global fight for internet freedom. Most importantly, all of the organization’s critical [Funds](https://www.opentech.fund/funds/) and [Labs](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/) are [once again open](https://www.opentech.fund/news/otf-is-accepting-applications-for-the-internet-freedom-fund-single-button-apply/) and accepting applications. OTF’s Funds are the primary way the organization supports specific project ideas, and include the [Internet Freedom Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/funds/internet-freedom-fund/), the [Rapid Response Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/funds/rapid-response-fund/), and the [Technology at Scale Fund](https://www.opentech.fund/funds/technology-scale/). By contrast, Labs are services offered to bolster the robustness of internet freedom via narrow, cost-effective interventions. These services are provided to both OTF-funded projects as well as other significant internet freedom efforts. Current Labs include the [Localization Lab](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/localization-lab/), the [Red Team Lab](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/red-team-lab/), the [Usability Lab](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/usability-lab/), the [Learning Lab](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/learning-lab/), the [Engineering Lab](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/engineering-lab/), and the [Legal Lab](https://www.opentech.fund/labs/legal-lab/). Interested applicants are encouraged to apply now! ### [Defined By Scandal At Voice of America, CEO Resigns At Biden's Request](https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958875488/voice-of-america-ceo-pack-defined-by-scandal-resigns-at-bidens-request?t=1642717944566) [[NPR]] (Selected excerpts) In his resignation letter, Pack said he was "solely focused upon reorienting the agency toward its missions." And he attacked the request for his resignation as "a partisan act," saying the leadership of the agency and its networks "is meant to be non-partisan, untethered to alternations in the political regime." He added, "I had no political agenda coming into USAGM, and I still do not have one." NPR conducted scores of interviews over the controversies Pack's actions engendered. And few at the agency or its broadcasters agreed with Pack's characterization of his mission or performance, instead characterizing him as seeking political control over their coverage. Just last week, a VOA reporter's insistent questions to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and VOA Director Robert R. Reilly over the siege on Congress after a public event [led to her demotion and an investigation.](https://www.npr.org/2021/01/15/956934808/new-chiefs-ties-shock-radio-free-asia-while-pompeo-visit-to-voa-stirs-outcry) Pack routinely accused journalists of anti-Trump bias, sought to fire top executives as part of a "deep state," ominously accused the networks of being receptive to foreign spies and denied requests for visa extensions from his own staffers who are foreign nationals. He initiated investigations over the bias claims, reaching into Voice of America's newsroom in ways a federal judge said broke the law and the First Amendment. [Pack hired a Richmond, Va., law firm](https://www.npr.org/2020/12/08/944291097/voa-director-forced-aside-in-drive-to-embed-trump-loyalists-before-biden-era) to investigate top U.S. Agency for Global Media executives after already seeking to oust them; new allegations, backed by correspondence reviewed by NPR, suggest [he paid more than $2 million to that firm](https://whistleblower.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Government-Accountability-Project-Whistleblower-Disclosure-Regarding-Gross-Waste-by-USAGM-1-19-2021..pdf) to conduct such reviews. (The lead partner on the investigation, John D. Adams, was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the subject of a sympathetic 2020 documentary by Pack.) Pack even fired White House aides assigned to help him by the Trump administration, suspecting them of disloyalty. Throughout, he kept all but a small circle of advisers in the dark as to what he was doing. Former U.S. Agency for Global Media general counsel David Kligerman said the agency would have to work hard to put a "terrible chapter" behind it. Kligerman, who resigned late last month, had been suspended by Pack in August, along with other senior executives after Pack was unable to fire them more immediately. "Pack seemed only to know how to destroy," Kligerman wrote in a statement to NPR, citing the CEO's record of "firing or otherwise pushing out so many talented journalists, network heads, grantee board members, and civil servants." "It was wanton destruction, and shocking disregard for the most basic civility or norms," Kligerman wrote. "Political staff targeted and terrorized career staff and others. It is hard to overstate the climate of fear and dread that existed at the Agency. It is then particularly ironic that in his letter of resignation Pack warns of future politicalization of the Agency: it is hard to see how one could have attempted to do more to politicize the Agency than Pack." Pack sought to ensure his influence endured after his departure by forcing the networks the agency funds but does not own to accept new boards of directors stocked with conservative activists and writers. The networks include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. (VOA and Radio/TV Marti are owned by the federal government.) The new board members, announced this month, include Roger L. Simon, a columnist for the pro-Trump and conspiracy-theory recycling newspaper _The Epoch Times_ who has written he believes the Jan. 6 attack on Congress by a pro-Trump mob was actually done by leftists in disguise, and Christian Whiton, a conservative foreign policy expert who has defended Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.