OTF, which backs Tor, Let's Encrypt and more, sues to save funding from Trump cuts
- Reference: 1742863564
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/03/25/otf_tor_lets_encrypt_funding_lawsuit/
- Source link:
The Open Technology Fund (OTF) backs [1]projects including the nonprofit certificate authority Let's Encrypt and the Tor anonymizing network, among other things designed to improve online privacy, promote democracy, and thwart repression around the world. [2]Tor and [3]Let's Encrypt each have or have had numerous sponsors besides the OTF, from big names in tech to European governments, for what it's worth.
On March 14, the White House issued an [4]executive order to eliminate the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and a few other such bodies "to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law."
[5]
The following day, former TV news anchor Kari Lake, now a Trump-selected special advisor to the USAGM, sent a letter to OTF declaring an end to all grant funding from agency. Lake also issued a [6]statement that described USAGM as “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer.” Supporters of the agency say it helps counter anti-American propaganda and was part of what was Uncle Sam's [7]soft power on Earth.
[8]
Big fan, bigly, even ... Kari Lake shows off a painting of Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023
Crucially, USAGM manages [9]the Voice of America and Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and dispenses congressionally approved funding to various non-profit organizations, one of which is the OTF.
The OTF’s [10]federal lawsuit [PDF] asks for a temporary restraining order that would prevent the USAGM and the US Office of Management and Budget from terminating a grant for the technology fund authorized by Congress that's not subject to executive branch control.
[11]
[12]
The complaint argues that in 2024, elected lawmakers specifically allocated $43.5 million for the OTF and its internet freedom programs, and that it's unconstitutional for the Trump administration to flout the will of Congress.
"The Open Technology Fund’s appropriation is explicitly set forth in the appropriations bills and is not subject to any executive discretion," the complaint states.
[13]As nation-state hacking becomes 'more in your face,' are supply chains secure?
[14]Oracle Cloud says it's not true someone broke into its login servers and stole data
[15]AI agents swarm Microsoft Security Copilot
[16]NASA rewrites Moon mission goals in quiet DEI retreat
The OTF claims tech it supports is used by more than two billion people. According to OTF board chairman Zack Cooper, that technology remains vital for countering censorship in China.
"The Chinese government is spending billions of dollars to erect the world’s most sophisticated censorship apparatus," said Cooper in [17]a statement issued Friday. "OTF is the United States' most efficient and effective tool to counter this malign influence."
[18]
Withdrawing funding from OTF, Cooper contends, would harm US national security and "leave millions of people worldwide trapped behind authoritarian information firewalls."
If OTF’s funding stops flowing, harm to the global internet community could be significant. The OTF supports the development of the [19]Messaging Layer Security Protocol that Apple and Google use to encrypt messages sent using Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages.
The OTF has also funded over 200 security audits and released more than 2,500 security patches for open source internet freedom tools. It supports VPNs used by 45 million people in China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Myanmar, and other censorious regimes.
[20]
"These tools are essential information lifelines that must be preserved,” said OTF President Laura Cunningham in a statement. "This lawsuit is a last resort to keep our tools online for the people who need them most."
[21]A similar lawsuit was filed on Friday against USAGM and Lake to prevent the shutdown of Voice of America and other government-funded news outlets. That complaint was backed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), The NewsGuild-CWA, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and seven individual workers. ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.opentech.fund/projects-we-support/supported-projects/?sc=&filter1=&filter2=&order-by-selector=date-desc&pageno=1
[2] https://www.torproject.org/about/supporters/
[3] https://www.abetterinternet.org/sponsors/
[4] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/continuing-the-reduction-of-the-federal-bureaucracy/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z-I4dS1ahy0B1-QYMoNe0AAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.usagm.gov/2025/03/15/u-s-agency-for-global-media-complies-with-presidential-executive-order-to-reduce-the-federal-bureaucracy/
[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/opinion/voice-of-america-shutdown.html
[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/03/25/shutterstock_kari_lake.jpg
[9] https://www.npr.org/2025/03/21/nx-s1-5336351/voice-of-america-trump-lawsuit-kari-lake-voa
[10] https://www.opentech.fund/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/1_-_2025-03-20_Complaint.pdf
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-I4dS1ahy0B1-QYMoNe0AAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-I4dS1ahy0B1-QYMoNe0AAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/nation_state_supply_chain_attack/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/23/oracle_cloud_customers_keys_credentials/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/microsoft_security_copilot_agents/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/nasa_dei_artemis/
[17] https://www.opentech.fund/news/open-technology-fund-files-lawsuit-to-contest-grant-termination-and-preserve-critical-mission/
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-I4dS1ahy0B1-QYMoNe0AAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9420/
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-I4dS1ahy0B1-QYMoNe0AAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.afscme.org/press/releases/2025/journalists-federal-workers-and-unions-file-lawsuit-to-challenge-closure-of-u-s-agency-for-global-media
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I think this must be the most idiotic comments I've read on this site, and with the way things have been the last few years, that's saying something.
Like Musk, you clearly don't understand how governments are meant to work.
But yeah, first Elon got rid of the branches that were investigating HIM, and now I suppose he's following your philosophy, because I guess nuclear weapon controls and also the seed bank aren't in the constitution.
If you look at what USAID did, you may figure out why Russia was so pleased it was abolished.
As for the seeds, as Dr. Iago Hale (professor of specialty crop improvement at the University of New Hampshire) and Dr. Michael Kantar (associate professor of plant genetics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.) put it:
"Such losses directly undermine the United States’ ability to ensure continued food security and dietary diversity amid challenges to our agricultural systems.
For the sake of all Americans, we denounce any attempts to weaken the N.P.G.S. The generations before us understood that it is the minimum function of a responsible government to invest in the long-term ability to feed its citizens."
[1]https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/
[2]https://archive.is/20250324150920/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/doge-elon-musk-usda-crops.html
[1] https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/
[2] https://archive.is/20250324150920/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/doge-elon-musk-usda-crops.html
Don't Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater
One problem with governments, NGOs, and businesses is what I'll call "tentaclisation". This is the distribution of work among multiple people in such a way that you can't just eliminate a bunch of jobs and still get the organisational output you want, even though that desired output could reasonably be produced by the fewer people.
One could treat the organisation like a greenfield computer program, define carefully the outputs and priorities you want, create the needed structure, hire the right number of people to run it, and figuratively burn its bloated predecessor to the ground. (And, damn, wouldn't we love to do that?!)
The problem with such a restart is the loss of data which needs continuity (tax records, house deeds, medical records, etc.)
An alternative would be simple budget-slashing. The problem with that is the upper management, which makes financial decisions for the org, would protect their own jobs, and fire the people who do the real (vs make-)work.
Rather than chainsaws, wood-chippers, and flame-throwers, you need a swarm of army ants which would carefully pick apart these bureaus and get rid of what's not needed, taking extreme care that the swarm of army ants does not become a bureaucracy unto itself.
You don't understand what "debt" means...
...between governments.
It's not like you owing your friend or your dad money. If you have debt to your friend or your dad, they can sue you and get a court to confiscate your owed wealth to close out the debt. Or they can get some friends and kick your ass and take what you owe them plus a little extra for the inconvenience. Maybe they break your legs to improve your future motivation toward timely repayment. We've all seen those movies.
National or "sovereign" debt isn't like that. The closest solution to leg-breaking is war, and all sides lose in war, and all sides know this from the outset. It's too expensive and too damaging. Ask Russia how much wealth and treasure they're winning in Ukraine, and how much that "winning" is costing them. Go back in time and ask postwar Germany how that WWII investment paid off. Ask England and the United States of America why they helped rebuild the Germany that they just bombed back into the stone age, but without actually claiming Germany for their own.
So countries take or offer debt to bind others to them as partners, but as *voluntary* partners. Carrying debt is a way to signal connection and to encourage trade, kinda like your favorite restaurant giving you a 10
It's also important to recognize that countries literally print money as needed. If the USA needs to pay a five billion dollar debt, they have the option of printing five thousand units of million dollar bills (or their digital equivalents) and delivering it to whatever country they owe. As long as the USA's creditors are willing to accept USA currency at the current exchange rate, job done. And if the creditors won't accept that currency, the USA either buys an equivalent amount of some other country's currency or...they do nothing and only lose the ability to do future business with the nation(s) that extended credit - much like your favorite restaurant might refuse to serve you if you stiffed them on the check last time.
Here's more detail and a pint up top to get you through it:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/sovereign-debt-default.asp
The biggest problem right now, Elon showed up with his chainsaw.
He should have shown up with an entire fleet of wood chippers instead.
At $36 trillion in debt, we’re not eliminating enough of the government. If it’s not listed in the constitution, shut it down.