[Air-L] Support for the Open Technology Fund

[Niels ten Oever]

Dear AoIR Community,

As you might have heard or read, Michael Pack, a Bannon ally, has been appointed as the director of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). This body oversees four organizations, namely Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund. Last Wednesday Pack has fired the heads of all aforementioned bodies, and replaced OTF's independent expert board [0]. 

The Open Technology Fund has been fundamental in the support of tools and research into privacy, anti-censorship, and decentralization tools. Examples of projects that have been supported by OTF are Signal, Tor, GlobaLeaks, as well as many researchers through the Information Controls Fellowship and other programs. 

A number of human rights and digital rights organizations have already put out statements about this:

Citizen Lab: https://citizenlab.ca/2020/06/keep-the-open-technology-fund-open/
Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/19/us-congress-should-back-open-technology-fund
Article 19: https://www.article19.org/resources/us-protect-open-technology-fund-and-protect-the-open-internet/
OONI: https://ooni.org/post/2020-06-19-save-internet-freedom-support-the-open-technology-fund/
CCC: https://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2020/support-otf
IFF: https://internetfreedomfestival.org/save-internet-freedom/
Access Now: https://www.accessnow.org/otf-global-internet-freedom-at-risk/https://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2020/support-otf

I would like to ask you to support OTF by signing the following statement, either as individual, or with your organization, or perhaps with you research group.

https://saveinternetfreedom.tech/

If you have any questions or would like to get involved in the campaign, feel free to reach out.

Best,

Niels

[0] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html
-- 
Niels ten Oever
Researcher and PhD Candidate - DATACTIVE Research Group - University of Amsterdam
Postdoctoral Scholar (abd) - Communications Department - Texas A&M University
Research Fellow - Centre for Internet and Human Rights - European University Viadrina
Associated Scholar - Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade - Fundação Getúlio Vargas

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