jilliancatyork

The Obama administration made Internet freedom part of its foreign policy agenda about ten years ago. Here's a speech that then-Secretary of State Clinton gave introducing the policy: https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2010/01/135519.htm

Although Internet freedom projects are funded through State as well, OTF is different: It made funding open source tools (and requiring security audits of those tools) a priority from the beginning.

Our work isn't getting folks online, it's helping them to avoid surveillance and circumvent Internet censorship, so there's still plenty of work to be done!

Quite a few of our products work in China, actually: Lantern, Signal, Tor, and GreatFire are just a few of them, but you can look at more of them on https://opentech.fund/

Not everyone uses Signal for sure, but the Signal Protocol is used a number of mainstream apps, including WhatsApp and Skype—that means that, in fact, many people all over the world are indeed using tech that was initially funded and incubated with OTF on a daily basis! I'm going to encourage my colleague u/n8fr8 to address the question about tech in China in more detail :)

I'll add to this to say that while non-profits in the US (like EFF) are often able to leverage donations from individuals, that model is far less common throughout the rest of the world (as are the tax writeoffs that exist in the US). That means that foreign non-profits and/or technology developers are limited in where they can get funding for their projects. Private foundations exist, but are often quite bureaucratic, or invite-only, and may even require reporting that some folks worry could violate the privacy of their constituents.

One of the things that sets OTF apart is how agile it is: It's been able to respond quickly (there's even a special rapid response fund!) to needs in a range of countries over the years.

No, OTF does not engage in direct lobbying.

If you're interested in that sort of thing, you might check out EFF (where I work) and our Electronic Frontier Alliance (https://www.eff.org/fight)

What a good moment to ask this question! All of us have worked on digital security in some capacity or another for quite some time, and during the pandemic, it occurred to me that digital security is sort of like wearing a mask: You're not just doing it for yourself, you're doing it to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our societies. After all, you're only as secure as the "weakest link" in your network.

Of course, as we know, this argument doesn't resonate with everyone, so let me add this: These days, almost everyone, whether living under in an authoritarian country or a democratic one, is at risk of being surveilled. Therefore, it's good practice for all of us to use tools that protect us from surveillance.