As The Guardian has previously pointed out https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/03/us-cuban-twitt...: USAID and these orgs were "undermining Cuba's communist government". Now it's time to celebrate. People will now be free to live as they wish under communism or whatever else they choose. It is not for us to choose whether people want to be invaded by Russia or ruled by Castro. If they don't want this, let them choose otherwise.
The President will be gone in a few years and USAID will still be gone. So that's the ideal state of affairs. The Republicans will have cleared out the bad agency and then whacked themselves. It's like radiation. You don't want the radiation always there but it's the only way to kill the cancer so you take it.
Perhaps, but that assumes they're actually making anything. It's quite possible they're only announcing it, or will only take people's money, or that this is a re-badge of something one of their donors already made and couldn't sell on an open market.
If it is so important, why are we relying on the US to fund it? Maybe it is not that important? Maybe this program is not a pillar for 'internet freedom', maybe, as we can clearly see, most of the world (including the EU) has no real interest in 'internet freedom'..
Don't get me wrong, I personally very much think freedom (internet or otherwise) is very important, and valuable. But the tone where Orange Man Bad pulls funding for ostensibly super duper important projects is such a bore. Maybe in stead of pointing out how bad this move is, we should be doing something about it? Oh wait we are busy clamping down on "hate speech" and blocking "dangerous" social media such as X.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, sure, we can claim a spurilous "think of thie children" angle, but usually that's about Children doing something; not pervy AIs and their pedophile proclivities.
Sure thing, the data grab stage is complete, models are trained, the bulk of the global data is in the pocket and whatever new arrives can be spoon-fed to them without the need to fund all this huge "free" data funneling infrastructure, and however much money was thrown into that must be recouped.
"Free internet" was but a business strategy, both as in beer and in freedom.
bugsense | 14 hours ago
yorwba | 13 hours ago
KevinMS | 11 hours ago
RobotToaster | 8 hours ago
They claim to have 3 million weekly users[1], I have no idea if that's a realistic cost for running a VPN of that scale?
Notably applicants for these grants don't have to be non-profits[0], which seems a little odd?
[0]https://www.opentech.fund/funds/surge-and-sustain-fund/
[1]https://psiphon.ca/en/about.html
davidguetta | 4 hours ago
renewiltord | 13 hours ago
End all American foreign interference.
Cipater | 10 hours ago
renewiltord | 3 hours ago
ben_w | 12 hours ago
RobotToaster | 11 hours ago
[OP] xyzal | 11 hours ago
ben_w | 4 hours ago
mvdwoord | 12 hours ago
Don't get me wrong, I personally very much think freedom (internet or otherwise) is very important, and valuable. But the tone where Orange Man Bad pulls funding for ostensibly super duper important projects is such a bore. Maybe in stead of pointing out how bad this move is, we should be doing something about it? Oh wait we are busy clamping down on "hate speech" and blocking "dangerous" social media such as X.
cyanydeez | 10 hours ago
mvdwoord | 9 hours ago
rickydroll | 7 hours ago
cyanydeez | 3 hours ago
Propelloni | 11 hours ago
wartywhoa23 | 9 hours ago
"Free internet" was but a business strategy, both as in beer and in freedom.