Here's one of the project members thanking Open Technology Fund on twitter: https://twitter.com/alisonkilling/status/1298938437412810753
Open Technology Fund is part of the US Agency for Global Media. Here's how Wikipedia describes them:
The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG),[2] is an independent agency of the United States government that operates various state-run media outlets.[3] It describes its mission, "vital to US national interests", to "inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy"[4] and in accordance with the "broad foreign policy objectives of the United States".[5] It is considered an arm of US diplomacy.[6]
USAGM supervises Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio y Televisión Martí, Radio Free Asia, and Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa.[7] The board of USAGM has an advisory role. It previously supervised USAGM media networks directly, but was replaced with a single appointed chief executive officer (CEO) as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, passed in December 2016.[8][9][10][11]
The article itself tries to justify pretty extreme claims based almost entirely on blurry satellite photos, which to me is reminiscent of the successful use of grainy satellite photos as "proof" that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
There is a propaganda blitz against China happening right now for the purpose of justifying future sanctions, isolation, and potentially war. I just want to make sure everyone here is aware of what's really going on, because the consequences of this will likely be quite serious.
EDIT: Reading more about the Open Technology Fund specifically. Holy shit:
The Open Technology Fund was created in 2012 as a pilot program within Radio Free Asia.[2][7] Under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department adopted a policy of supporting global internet freedom initiatives.[8] At this time, RFA began looking into technologies that helped their audiences avoid censorship and surveillance.[8] Journalist Eli Lake argued that Clinton's policy was "heavily influenced by the Internet activism that helped organize the green revolution in Iran in 2009 and other revolutions in the Arab world in 2010 and 2011".[8]
I feel like this definitely deserves a bit more attention.
Excellent post, OP. I'd like to point out the expertly ghoulish part of the description:
How the fuck can OTF be described as fucking "independent?" It's funded by the US government and explicitly says it's mission is "vital to US national interests." It should be laughable that very serious people are able to describe an explicit arm of the US propaganda network as "independent" without their brains exploding. Let's see if Wikipedia has the same unbiased(tm) take on state media from, say, China:
:yea:
Probably independent means doesn't answer to the president or Congress. It's so funny to spin "state actor with even less democratic control than normal" that way
I don't think Xi Jinping personally oversees CGTN either, and I'd argue that in it's operation it's actually harder on China than OTF is on America.
All the tech they fund (Signal, TOR, etc.) It billed as fighting surveillance, but never specifies anything about American surveillance. It's almost always talking about Chinese surveillance and was made to help agents in China phone home lol.
Didn't really work very well considering entire rings have been rolled up by the Chinese.
I couldn't stop laughing at this description. Just the sheer absurdity of it.