I just chaired a session at the FOCI conference earlier today, where people were talking about Internet censorship circumvention technologies and how to prevent governments from blocking them. I'd like to remind everyone that the U.S. government has been one the largest funders of that research for decades. Some of it is under USAGM (formerly BBG, the parent of RFE/RL)
and some of it has been under the State Department, partly pursuant to the global Internet freedom program introduced by Hillary Clinton in 2010 when she was Secretary of State.
I'm sure the political and diplomatic valence is very different here, but the concept of "the U.S. government paying to stop foreign governments from censoring the Internet" is a longstanding one.
reactordev 43 minutes ago [-]
It goes deeper than that. The U.S. Government funds it, discourages other nations from using it, and spies on all web traffic as a result of it.
Almost 80% of communications go through a data center in Northern VA. Within a quick drive to Langley, Quantico, DC, and other places that house three letter agencies I’m not authorized to disclose.
recursive 19 minutes ago [-]
Speed of light establishes certain latency minima. Experimental data can falsify (or not) at geographical locations far enough from VA.
reactordev 7 minutes ago [-]
Correct but local governments using Palantir will need to provide it to them somehow.
Waterluvian 42 minutes ago [-]
It’s a clear way to project soft power: make sure your message and culture can get through.
learingsci 24 minutes ago [-]
This is exactly right. TikTok is a great example. Rather than let the CCP take control over people and remove freedom from the internet, we have taken over and opened the platform up to free expression without communist strictures or interference. The are numerous examples, from Apple to Microsoft.
motbus3 13 minutes ago [-]
Can you be more specific?
CupricTea 7 minutes ago [-]
I was in Paris the other week and my girlfriend was having issues connecting to reddit from a Google search. Mine was working fine. She was using a local SIM while I roamed on my US carrier that gives me an American IP address.
That's how I learned that Reddit is currently blocked nationwide in France. Say what you want about the porn restrictions some states are doing but blocking reddit and crippling most google searches is a bit ridiculous.
Keats 1 minutes ago [-]
It isn't blocked? I'm in France and I can see it just fine.
JumpinJack_Cash 5 minutes ago [-]
France of all countries is the least I expected, but I guess their stance on libertine sex has nothing to do with porn
ivan_gammel 17 minutes ago [-]
If something looks like MITM, chances are it is MITM.
engineer_22 5 minutes ago [-]
What's MITM?
alistairSH 52 minutes ago [-]
Won't those other nations just ban freedom.gov?
crest 41 minutes ago [-]
They wouldn't dare ban a .gov domain and we will hide all of behind Cloudflare! /s
mlh496 12 minutes ago [-]
Sad that western Europe is pushing so hard for limits to free speech & privacy. I'm not surprised given their history, but it's sad nonetheless.
tracker1 14 minutes ago [-]
Until you have to validate your id/age to continue...
Seriously though... we have one segment undermining foreign lockdowns while the same and other segments are literally doing the same here.
reisse 53 minutes ago [-]
Fun hypothetical question - will it be restricted to users in sanctioned locations (where it's most needed) because of, well, sanctions?
iugtmkbdfil834 34 minutes ago [-]
Amusingly, there typically are various exceptions made for those. All technical and whatnot, but for example, Iran is heavily sanctioned, but has all sorts of exceptions for stuff like that precisely because of the impact it can have.
tills13 46 minutes ago [-]
A state sponsored vpn is probably not (only) gonna do what you think it's doing.
walthamstow 1 hours ago [-]
So it'll have porn?
general1465 48 minutes ago [-]
I wonder if American citizens from states which requires age verification to access porn (25 US states today) will be fine with it or these states will start demanding ID to access freedom.gov. It would be delicious irony.
Animats 35 minutes ago [-]
Right. Porn will probably be most of the traffic. The number of people in Europe who really want to access US neo-Nazi sites is probably not large.
graemep 19 minutes ago [-]
There is a lot more blocked than porn and neo-nazis. This will also allow access to sites that block access because of laws: Imgur is not accessible from the uk, nor are a lot of smaller US news sites. Ofcom are after 4 chan too.
crest 36 minutes ago [-]
Government mandated uncensored free porn access. I wonder if this will this also apply in US states requiring age verification to legally access such content?
kojacklives 26 minutes ago [-]
They will probably (first) have to bounce off freedom.ccTLD
for any ccTLD but .us.
ReflectedImage 37 minutes ago [-]
So going forward all countries will be providing citizens of other countries free access to the internet whilst censoring their own citizens?
csrse 3 minutes ago [-]
Fantastic! Now EU just needs to setup freedomgov.eu that bounces off freedom.gov so americans also can browse whatever with no restrictions.
astro1138 1 hours ago [-]
Is that going to accelerate copyright violations for AI training? https://cuiiliste.de/domains contains just a lot of piracy sites.
general1465 54 minutes ago [-]
It is like ultimate throwing stones in a glass house. Americans are dependent on other countries following IP and copyright protections and yet they will go great lengths to undermine it because it is short term beneficial for their companies.
ortusdux 41 minutes ago [-]
The quest for quarterly returns will be our downfall.
Nnnes 47 minutes ago [-]
Cool, maybe I'll be able to access www.census.gov from outside the US now
crest 38 minutes ago [-]
At least the starting page is reachable from Germany without a VPN.
Weird title, but worthy of discussion. From the little info available so far this appears to be little more than political posturing. If you want to fight censorship, an "online portal" to access all the censored content is the wrongest possible way to go about it. But we'll see.
Why? Seriously, why do we care so much about this?
Do we not have better uses of our money. Also the irony considering recent moves by the US government in terms of control of the internet and free speech.
ericmay 52 minutes ago [-]
> Also the irony considering recent moves by the US government in terms of control of the internet and free speech.
Well you've got plenty of countries doing it, including France, Iran, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Brasil, Australia, you name it. Not that it's good, but a criticism for the goose is a criticism for the gander, as a manner of speaking.
As to which, why or why do we care so much about this? Idk, same reason our government funds tens of thousands of initiatives and cares about lots of different things that people find equally important or unimportant.
mrighele 39 minutes ago [-]
Historically the US did care a lot, in a way it reminds me of the Crusade for Freedom [1] and Radio Free Europe [2].
So I find this in line with the behavior of many American administration, the weird thing being that this time the target is not the just usual suspects (China, Iran, etc.) but also European allies.
(not saying this is a good thing btw, just trying to put it in perspective)
Ironically, this effectively is a pro-Trump comment because it's the Trump administration that defunded US propaganda outlets.
idiotsecant 48 minutes ago [-]
No, the Trump administration is an enormous supporter of propaganda outlets, just not the ones that already existed. They don't care about maintaining the rules based world order. Their propaganda is much more inward-focused.
throw-the-towel 40 minutes ago [-]
You're probably right, I was speaking as someone from outside the States, and hence more familiar with the outside-focused US outlets.
carlosjobim 6 hours ago [-]
These things have been going on forever. Since WWII and until right now, there has been radio stations broadcasting into enemy territory, to bypass censorship.
idiotsecant 51 minutes ago [-]
Because the US has become, for some reason I don't fully understand, a hot bed of Far-Reich propaganda. Propaganda doesn't work when governments filter it.
I predict that this will be a massive technical failure like every other project that this group of incompetent fascists attempts. Our empire is so broken that the fascists can't even make the trains run on time anymore.
pjc50 53 minutes ago [-]
But will they put the complete Epstein files on there?
sunshine-o 19 minutes ago [-]
I would have loved to be in the meeting where they were wondering how to replace the highly costly and complex influence tool that was USAID, and then someone said:
- Why don't we just make a website?
- Yes let's just do that.
rkagerer 21 hours ago [-]
Or they could just make a donation to Tor and similar projects, and get way more mileage for their money.
kyboren 19 hours ago [-]
They do support Tor, actually[0]. Which makes this even more confusing.
The world will be exposed to hardcore pornography, child endangerment, AI CSAM, and militant algorithms by force, if needed!
Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine (2018) directly claims the internet is “the most effective weapon the government has ever built,” tracing its roots to Pentagon counterinsurgency projects like ARPA’s efforts in Vietnam-era surveillance.
The book argues surveillance was “woven into the fabric” from the start, linking early ARPANET development to intelligence goals, and extends to modern tech giants like Google as part of a military-digital complex.
reisse 54 minutes ago [-]
When U.S. Govt sponsors Tor, which does expose exactly what your describe, the reaction is usually positive.
Hamuko 1 hours ago [-]
The joke that I saw online was "Does it have Colbert on it?"
cyberax 29 minutes ago [-]
Yes, but you'll have to spend equal time browsing Pravda^W Truth Social.
freitasm 1 hours ago [-]
"Portal team includes former DOGE member Coristine"
"...user activity on the site will not be tracked."
Ok, stopped reading right there.
Rendered at 22:20:59 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agency_for_Globa...
and some of it has been under the State Department, partly pursuant to the global Internet freedom program introduced by Hillary Clinton in 2010 when she was Secretary of State.
I'm sure the political and diplomatic valence is very different here, but the concept of "the U.S. government paying to stop foreign governments from censoring the Internet" is a longstanding one.
Almost 80% of communications go through a data center in Northern VA. Within a quick drive to Langley, Quantico, DC, and other places that house three letter agencies I’m not authorized to disclose.
That's how I learned that Reddit is currently blocked nationwide in France. Say what you want about the porn restrictions some states are doing but blocking reddit and crippling most google searches is a bit ridiculous.
Seriously though... we have one segment undermining foreign lockdowns while the same and other segments are literally doing the same here.
Weird title, but worthy of discussion. From the little info available so far this appears to be little more than political posturing. If you want to fight censorship, an "online portal" to access all the censored content is the wrongest possible way to go about it. But we'll see.
Do we not have better uses of our money. Also the irony considering recent moves by the US government in terms of control of the internet and free speech.
Well you've got plenty of countries doing it, including France, Iran, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Brasil, Australia, you name it. Not that it's good, but a criticism for the goose is a criticism for the gander, as a manner of speaking.
As to which, why or why do we care so much about this? Idk, same reason our government funds tens of thousands of initiatives and cares about lots of different things that people find equally important or unimportant.
So I find this in line with the behavior of many American administration, the weird thing being that this time the target is not the just usual suspects (China, Iran, etc.) but also European allies.
(not saying this is a good thing btw, just trying to put it in perspective)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_for_Freedom
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert...
I predict that this will be a massive technical failure like every other project that this group of incompetent fascists attempts. Our empire is so broken that the fascists can't even make the trains run on time anymore.
- Why don't we just make a website?
- Yes let's just do that.
[0]: https://www.torproject.org/about/supporters/
I'd rather not...
visuals with the only text on screen being...
---
"Freedom is Coming"
Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.
They also gutted the prior org that helped people do this in other countries on the ground
https://freedom.gov/
you're too kind
Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine (2018) directly claims the internet is “the most effective weapon the government has ever built,” tracing its roots to Pentagon counterinsurgency projects like ARPA’s efforts in Vietnam-era surveillance.
The book argues surveillance was “woven into the fabric” from the start, linking early ARPANET development to intelligence goals, and extends to modern tech giants like Google as part of a military-digital complex.
"...user activity on the site will not be tracked."
Ok, stopped reading right there.