cross-posted from: https://lemmy.abnormalbeings.space/post/952648
TEXT VERSION: https://thelibre.news/trump-cuts-funding-to-foss-projects/
So I guess funds were cut, but then the courts ruled the president doesn’t have authority to do this himself since the funds were allocated by congress, and so as of now they have been restored, although congress needs to approve them every year and there’s concern they might not do so for next year.
Until Trump ignores court orders and cuts funding anyway.
Supreme Court will probably rule that while congress has the power of the purse, the president has the power of canceling the credit cards in the wallet, because fuck you that’s why
Well, this is what the relevant part of the video says:
USAGM disbursed $7.5M to these entities, in “what seemed to be an effort to delay the hearing or woo the judge”. Regardless, the latter has sided against USAGM, and just a few days ago, the agency has decided to back off and release the funds for the 2025 fiscal year.
Oh No ! Leopards Ate My Face.
Better off in the long run.
This is not an example of leopards eating someone’s face. Unless those projects threw their support behind Trump’s admin, and I have no reason to believe they did, this is simply falling victim to fascist idiots.
Valid point.
Uhh… these projects are the backbone of the free and modern web. How is less funding a good thing?
Not sure if this is meant here, but shockingly many people believe that “funding” something equals to “controlling” it.
many people believe that “funding” something equals to “controlling” it.
Pretty much the definition of soft power, which an awful lot of politicians believe in.
@thingsiplay It does, if it turns into dependence. Look at Mozilla.
Mozilla was not controlled by Google.
Not a good thing, just an inevitable one, as they conflict with the interests of the US (oligarchs and techbros).
Not the one you answered to, but I think I can understand the idea of US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere. That “elsewhere” is a good question, though.
Just me, personally, my dream would be an international fund, carried by the UN or maybe an independent NGO, that can get funding from both private and public funds, that prioritises free internet access the way the WHO prioritises health. But I think that’s still far off.
Isn’t the OTF already an NGO that can receive funding from different sources?
Kind of, I wouldn’t really call them an international organisation in the way I would be imagining, see how easy it was to cut their funding when national interests turned openly fascist. Their affiliation with the US government above more independent, international organisations meant, that they would support privacy and a free and open internet, as long as it helps dissidents in other, non-aligned countries, but quick to cut it, if it reaches their own doorsteps.
US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere.
Yup, pretty much my intent, that and the insecurity it engenders, rather surprised by the reaction.
the reaction makes sense; these organizations are modeled after for-profit corporations since that’s where most of its leaders come from and oriented towards simpler modes of funding like the american gov’t; this is effectively a disaster for this sort of posture and it’s hard from them to imagine any other form.
long run
This is the crux of the problem when losing funding like this
No. UN and related independent NGOs have shown their cards. They cannot be trusted. ICANN is the quintessential example of an ossified vulturous bureaucracy laser focused on oligarchic control. And the ITU has designs to rewrite current Internet protocols to have a fee structure built in at the packet level to ensure no packed flow without someone paying money.
We cannot trust the systems we have now. We must focus on diversifying income sources for us to be safe
@MalReynolds Are you saying F-Droid, TOR, Tails or Let’s Encrypt supported Trump? I’d like to read more about that.
How could you read it that way ? I’m saying eventually they were going to conflict with the interests of the US (oligarchs and techbros) and lose funding. Shocker, it happened under cheeto.
@MalReynolds Leopards eating faces implies that they voted for the Leopards. But ok, issue clarified, all good.
Yeah, I have a broader view of the phrase, which includes complacency (not actively working at alternatives) as well as just voting, seems most agree with you.
Having a broader view of a phrase just means you didn’t understand the phrase. It’s okay to admit that.
That would be good for government to cut funding. Users should give away their own cash to support the projects.
Funders of any project can influence decisions, but users giving from their own personal money can keep open source software free from any influences.
But sadly in reality it means these projects will most likely go underfunded
One of the expressed reasons for cutting funding to PBS and NPR (via the Corp. for Public Broadcasting) is because they can’t influence what is being said by those entities.
PBS and NPR do sell a partisian message, they are not for anybody and everybody to speak. NPR and PBS only allow presentations from those who have the correct opinions and views.
Source?
His butthole, NPR has been a propaganda tool for the Gen X liberal forever.
One cannot influence what no longer exists. *tapsforehead
Oh course not. They stop people spying on you.
If you use these services, please donate once or regularly if you’re able. They are free as in puppy, not beer - dev work costs money. I would guess many people using Tor/privacy tools are tech savvy enough to have financial comfort due to a good career. If you do it you’re doing an everyday act of rebellion for the sake of progress!!!
Puppy?
“free” when you find it on the side of the road, but expensive to actually maintain without having it die on you.
The download is free, but pay for it or it’s going to die.
Does this government funding really ever result in a hands off approach. In the case of Tor I wouldn’t be surprised that funding comes with backdoor access.
Backdoor access to what?
The last reply I will make.
From September 19 2024
“In response, the Tor Project acknowledged that one user of an outdated application called Ricochet was likely deanonymized through a “guard discovery attack.” However, they emphasized that this vulnerability has since been patched in current versions of Tor software.”
but that wasn’t his last reply
Excuse me? Are you saying using guard discovery is a backdoor someone gave to the government? I mean, you can think whatever, but the technology isn’t really… backdoorable? It doesn’t make sense in the context. Where will the backdoor lead? It has no where to go.
(I am a different person, not arguing anything about this particular vulnerability or the government’s funding of Tor.)
I think you’re defining backdoor too literally. I get your point, but colloquially it just means to get something nefarious in. If someone is saying “the government has a backdoor in an encryption algorithm” it would mean they believe the government has a vulnerability in that allows them to easily break the encryption, not necessarily a separate “door” or something.
Yeah the government has an institutional thing I forget what it is called, with massive amount of known exploits. That’s not backdoors. A backdoor is a “planted” exploit, not a discovered exploit. It makes no sense to call all exploits backdoors.
Okay buddy keep it going as long as you need to. You might enjoy Reddit more, it’s a safe space for people who cannot change their opinions. Bye.
TOR fundamentally cannot be backdoored. The US government funds it because more traffic on the network helps mask the traffic coming from CIA agents and the like
I’m not going to outright disagree with your opinion but I honestly have my doubts.
Go look at the code, then.
Yeah whatever. Sorry you got butthurt.
Look, you either check for yourself, or trust people who have. The only other option amounts to building your own parallel reality.
Let it go buddy.
You can also take an intermediate approach, actually. Usually I can tell from just the developer docs or whitepapers if something has a way of producing the guarantees it claims.
Showing my ignorance here, but would genuinely like an explanation - aren’t/weren’t compromised exit nodes a thing?
Imagine trying to explain FOSS to this fucking administration.
If it’s free, then why are we paying for it?
I can hear ypu americanness from behind the screen darling.
Free means freedom not “no payments” it takes huge money to develop and maintain software and infrastructures like these. So they need funding to survive.
Sorry, I was writing that in Trump’s voice. I am an American who loves and contributes to open-source :)
You sound like a smug a-hole.
I see what you did there… but freedom costs $1.05.
Freedom isn’t free as in beer?
While it sucks that FOSS projects will have their funding sapped, let’s remember why the open source is used in the first place: it can’t be bought. If it goes down, someone will just forked last known repository and have it up and running again.
Yep. All the funding they’ve already put into it will stay put. You can’t uncode FOSS.
EFF should GTFOutta US and set up shop in a safer region.
We need them here now more then ever unfortunately. But yeah, stay safe and spread out for sure.
They’re the only thing I wear tee shirts for, have stickers all over my gear, and talk about way too often. Underappreciated champions of the people and nobody outside of these kinds of circles knows who the hell they are.
I was going to suggest Canada or Greenland…
I really appreciate that there’s a text version for those of us who can’t or won’t use videos! Thank you so much for sharing it, too. 💙
Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.
If it makes you feel better (or worse), thr NSA has contributed a great deal of work to the Linux kernel. In fact, they created SELinux, which you may be using at this very moment.
Not that unusual. e.g. TOR started as a governement project. it was invented in the U.S. Naval Research Lab.
internet too
gps too
If US uses FOSS software in its operations (it does, everyone does) it has a vested interest in keeping these projects alive.
Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.
Do they use for browser for something?
Use it? The US invented it. The US has historically funded it as part of their human rights initiatives. Like I said:
Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.
Given the nature of the Tor network, it’s likely any “official” use within the US government would probably involve things like communicating with people working undercover / informants, etc., and not be something broadly discussed.
FOSS is already stale for a long time by large corporations (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, X, etc), all of these with own developments of FOSS, these are not affected by this cuts for OpenSource proyects, but small startups, individual devs and small companies and oprganisations. It’s not against FOSS, it’s about control and clear against freedom.
Fuck the US https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/eu-oss-catalogue
Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.
A mixture of the elements within the US that actually believed the stuff about personal rights and democracy still existing behind the more sinister realities, as well as it being in the same pot of funded projects like Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the likes, which always were a mix of just outright propaganda organs, but also providing the scaffolding of free media access for some regions in the past.
So, it’s complicated, ultimately rooted in a mix of the cynical US wanting to support dissidents in other countries, and the idealist US also having people actually believing in personal freedom and privacy, even within their government/state structures.
Also, just in general, a lot of FOSS projects get funding from governments, US or otherwise. If I remember correctly ReactOS got a lot of funding from Russia, for example, because they saw a potential way to get away from Microsoft in it.
From what I gather, there was no open influence wielded over those projects, I at least don’t remember the OTF forcing a backdoor onto Tor Browser for the CIA or something like that - thankfully the open source structure makes that easier to control - but the weakness becomes apparent now, of course, because funds could now be withdrawn, as the government turned fascist.
Solid answer! Guess I’m a cow patty for even asking, but you came to the rescue.
It’s not surrounded by a ton of corporate bs. I know the us govt has their own openstreetmap setups (like this basic unclassified one) and wiki sites (intellipedia) because it’s a proven framework to set up and add your own information.
Holy shit, we have our own SCP archives? That’s sick
we shouldn’t need the government also we have made it fairly far
FLOSS projects can only be sustainable if their are enough shared interests able to support it through contributions of all kinds. Fortunately the code is free so that constellation of support can change over time. It’s a shame this particular line of government funding is coming to an end but others can help.
I didn’t know that the government was funding these things to begin with, but I don’t know many things.
I also didn’t know this, but really we should all be putting money behind FOSS (myself included). We don’t need billionaires.
Because foss projects like tor are regularly used by the agencies. It’s little money for a lot of work they don’t need to do.
Sounds like it may be time for some creative licensing
Lets encrypt could run a patreon and stay funded. Plenty of people with money depend on them.
