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Open Technology Fund

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Open Technology Fund
AbbreviationOTF
Formation2012 (2012)
FounderLibby Liu
Dan Meredith[1]
PurposeThe support of Internet censorship circumvention and Internet privacy technologies[2][3]
Headquarters2025 M Street NW, Suite 300
Location
Principal Director
Laura Cunningham[1]
Parent organization
Radio Free Asia (U.S. Agency for Global Media)
AffiliationsU.S. Government
Budget85 million USD as of 2018[4]
Staff12-15[1]
Websitewww.opentech.fund

The Open Technology Fund (OTF) is an American independent non-profit corporation[5] with the aim to support global Internet freedom technologies. Its mission is to "support open technologies and communities that increase free expression, circumvent censorship, and obstruct repressive surveillance as a way to promote human rights and open societies." It started as a U.S. Government funded program created in 2012 at Radio Free Asia[2]. However, the program has been criticized as aiming to facilitate existing U.S. Government propaganda and foreign influence efforts by its parent organizations, Radio Free Asia and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors).

History

The Open Technology Fund was created in 2012.[3] According to US journalist Eli Lake, the idea for the creation of the Open Technology Fund was the result of a policy advocated by Hillary Clinton when she was the U.S. Secretary of State.[6] Lake has written that Clinton's policy was "heavily influenced by the Internet activism that helped organize the green revolution in Iran in 2009 and other revolutions in the Arab world in 2010 and 2011".[6]

In September 2014, the Open Technology Fund worked with Google and Dropbox to create an organization called Simply Secure to help improve the usability of privacy tools.[7]

In March 2017, the Open Technology Fund's future was reported as under question due to the Trump administration's unclear positions on Internet freedom issues.[8] Since then, the Open Technology Fund has been funded under the Trump administration.

In November 2019, OTF announced that they became an independent non-profit corporation.[9]

Organization and funding

The Open Technology Fund reports to Radio Free Asia's president, who in turn reports to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM, formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors).[3] The OTF is sustained by annual grants from the USAGM, which originate from yearly U.S. Congressional appropriations for State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.[3] According to the OTF, it works together with other publicly funded programs to fulfill a U.S. Congressional mandate to sustain and increase global freedom of information on the Internet with public funds.[3]

Projects

As of February 2016, the Open Technology Fund supports 83 projects, consisting of over 2 700 developers, technologists, and translators.[10] Notable projects that the OTF has supported include The Tor Project, Open Whisper Systems, Cryptocat, GlobaLeaks, Tor2web, The Guardian Project, Citizen Lab, Commotion Wireless, Lantern, Serval Project, Briar, NoScript, Qubes OS, WireGuard and Tails.[11]

The OTF funds third party audits for all of the code related projects that it supports.[12] It has also offered to fund audits of "non-OTF supported projects that are in use by individuals and organizations under threat of censorship/surveillance".[12] Notable projects whose audits the OTF has sponsored include Cryptocat,[13] Commotion Wireless,[14] TextSecure,[14] GlobaLeaks,[14] MediaWiki,[15] OpenPGP.js,[16] Nitrokey,[17] and Ricochet.[18] The OTF also matched donations that were made toward the auditing of TrueCrypt.[19] In December 2014, the OTF reported that it had funded more than 30 technology code audits over the past three years, identifying 185 privacy and security vulnerabilities in both OTF and non-OTF-funded projects.[12]

In December 2015, The Tor Project announced that the OTF will be sponsoring a bug bounty program that will be coordinated by HackerOne.[20][21] The program will initially be invite-only and will focus on finding vulnerabilities that are specific to The Tor Project's applications.[20]

Controversies and criticism

The OTF is a part of Radio Free Asia, which has been historically criticized as a propaganda arm of the United States Government including by members of the U.S. Government.[22] As such, the OTF's support for Internet technologies is also criticized as a U.S. Government propaganda effort to effect international political goals, including regime change in China and Iran.[23][24] Radio Free Asia was also historically established as a CIA project, and this relationship is frequently criticized by foreign media.[25][26]

In his book “Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy”, Christopher Simpson describes the history of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and Radio Free Asia as being established by the American Central Intelligence Agency as "psychological warfare" projects with a focus on international propaganda efforts. The OTF dedicates part of its budget to translating and localizing all of the tools that it funds into languages such as Tibetan and Persian, ensuring that it can be used in areas targeted by Radio Free Asia broadcasts.[27] The OTF also funds foreign "advocacy groups", including the Lebanese-based Social Media Exchange (SMEX), which frequently encourages protests against the Lebanese government and offers dissidents advice on how to remain anonymous online using other OTF-funded projects.[28] SMEX's director, Mohamad Najem, is a member of the OTF's Advisory Board.[29]. Similarly, other OTF-funded groups encourage activism and anti-government protests in Iran.

See also

  • Freedom of the Press Foundation – a non-governmental organization that has also supported some of the same projects that the OTF has supported
  • Mass surveillance – the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens
  • NetFreedom Task Force – an initiative within the U.S. Department of State that was established in February 2006

References

  1. ^ a b c "Team". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Values & Principles". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e "OTF's History". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Broadcasting Board of Governors FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification" (PDF). Broadcasting Board of Governors.
  5. ^ "A New, Independent OTF". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  6. ^ a b Lake, Eli (18 September 2015). "Government Is Fighting Itself on Encryption". Bloomberg View (Column). Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 15 February 2016. Note: The author uses "Open Whisper" when referring to Open Whisper Systems.
  7. ^ Rushe, Dominic (18 September 2014). "Google and Dropbox launch Simply Secure to improve online security". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  8. ^ Melendez, Steven (24 March 2017). "U.S.-Backed Efforts To Promote Openness And Democracy Are At Risk In The Age Of Trump". Fast Company. Fast Company, Inc.
  9. ^ "A New, Independent OTF". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  10. ^ "Results". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  11. ^ "Projects". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  12. ^ a b c Hurley, Chad (10 December 2014). "Code Audits are Good. Making Code Audits Public is Better". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  13. ^ Diquet, Alban; Thiel, David; Stender, Scott (7 February 2014). "Open Technology Fund CryptoCat iOS Application Penetration Test" (PDF). iSEC Partners. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  14. ^ a b c Ritter, Tom (14 October 2013). "Working with the Open Technology Fund". iSEC Partners. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  15. ^ Steipp, Chris (20 April 2015). "Improving the security of our users on Wikimedia sites". Wikimedia Blog. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  16. ^ Heiderich, Mario; Kotowicz, Krzysztof; Magazinius, Jonas; Antesberger, Franz (February 2014). "Pentest-Report OpenPGP.js 02.2014" (PDF). Cure53. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  17. ^ McDevitt, Dan (2 October 2015). "Nitrokey Storage Firmware and Hardware Security Audits". Open Technology Fund. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  18. ^ Cox, Joseph (17 February 2016). "'Ricochet', the Messenger That Beats Metadata, Passes Security Audit". Motherboard. Vice Media LLC. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  19. ^ White, Kenneth; Green, Matthew (21 January 2014). "IsTrueCryptAuditedYet?". Open Crypto Audit Project. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  20. ^ a b Cox, Joseph (29 December 2015). "The Tor Project Is Starting a Bug Bounty Program". Motherboard. Vice Media LLC. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  21. ^ Conditt, Jessica (31 December 2015). "Tor plans to launch a bug bounty program". Engadget. AOL Inc. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  22. ^ Dick Kirschten: Broadcast News May 1, 1999
  23. ^ Spy-funded privacy tools (like Signal and Tor) are not going to protect us from President Trump Surveillance Valley. December 6 2016
  24. ^ Internet privacy, funded by spooks: A brief history of the BBG Pando. March 11, 2015
  25. ^ On Quiet Streets of Myanmar Fear Is a Constant Companion International Herald Tribune. October 21, 2007
  26. ^ Myanmar guards accused of detainee abuse Associated Press. October 11, 2007
  27. ^ "Broadcasting Board of Governors FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification" (PDF). Broadcasting Board of Governors.
  28. ^ "Lebanon Protests: How To Communicate Securely in Case of a Network Disruption". SMEX. 18 October 2019.
  29. ^ "OTF: Mohamad Najem". Open Technology Fund. 18 October 2019.

Further reading

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