US funding for global internet freedom 'effectively gutted'

DOGE targets internet freedom grants

The Trump administration effectively gutted US funding for global internet freedom initiatives in 2025. This decision halts grants for groups building tools to evade government surveillance and censorship in authoritarian regimes.

The Internet Freedom program distributed more than $500 million over the last decade. In 2024 alone, the program issued $94 million to developers and activists working in countries like Iran, China, and the Philippines.

Career employees at the State Department and the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) resigned or faced termination following the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This new agency targeted the internet freedom budget as part of a broader effort to reduce the size of the federal government. Many of these programs now face permanent cancellation.

The funding cuts arrived as the administration also withdrew the US from the Freedom Online Coalition in January 2025. This global alliance previously served as the primary diplomatic vehicle for defending digital rights and open internet access worldwide. The withdrawal signals a significant shift in US foreign policy regarding digital sovereignty and human rights.

Former officials state that the main granting office issued no new money during the 2025 fiscal year. This freeze leaves dozens of international organizations without the resources needed to maintain servers and update software. These groups often operate in high-risk environments where digital anonymity is a requirement for physical safety.

Critical tools lose federal support

The Internet Freedom program served as a primary financier for the world's most popular privacy and circumvention technologies. These tools allow users to bypass national firewalls and communicate without government monitoring. The funding supported a wide range of technologies, including:

• Signal: An encrypted messaging service used by millions to protect private conversations.
• Tor: A browser and network that anonymizes web traffic to prevent tracking.
• Satellite datacasting: Technology that broadcasts international news via satellite signals to bypass local internet shutdowns.
• Middlebox evasion: Software that hides internet traffic patterns to prevent authorities from identifying specific types of data.

In Iran, these technologies allowed citizens to coordinate during anti-government protests in early 2025. Activists used these tools to share videos of massacres and alert others to the presence of security forces. When the Iranian government attempted to cut the population off from the global internet, these US-funded tools provided a vital link to the outside world.

The program also supported groups in Myanmar fighting against the military junta’s digital iron curtain. Developers in these regions often work out of small apartments on shoestring budgets. They rely on US grants to pay for the high bandwidth costs associated with running global circumvention networks.

Censorship regimes have become more sophisticated by using middleboxes exported by Chinese companies. These devices sit on network cables and allow authorities to monitor and throttle traffic with high precision. Without constant updates from US-funded developers, older circumvention tools struggle to bypass these newer hardware-based filters.

Legal battles freeze remaining money

The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a nonprofit that directs roughly half of the federal internet freedom budget, is currently fighting the administration in court. The OTF won a lawsuit in December 2025 to force the government to restore some of the promised funding. However, the administration filed an appeal shortly after the ruling, keeping the money locked in legal limbo.

This legal stalemate has forced many digital rights organizations to lay off staff or cease operations entirely. Some technologists continue to work without pay, hoping that future appropriations might release the funds. A recent spending bill included a line item for internet freedom, but it failed to name specific programs as recipients.

The lack of clear funding targets allows the administration to redirect cash or simply refuse to spend it. Some grantees fear that any future funding will come with political strings attached. They worry the administration may prioritize tools that align with specific political goals rather than maintaining the internet as a global commons.

The State Department has not issued a formal comment on the status of the 2025 grants. The OTF also declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Internal documents suggest that the administration views these programs as unnecessary foreign aid rather than essential national security tools.

Digital rights experts in Europe describe the Internet Freedom program as a load-bearing pillar of the global web. No other country or organization provides a similar level of financial support for open-source privacy software. The sudden removal of this funding creates a vacuum that private donors are unlikely to fill.

Global censorship becomes more efficient

Authoritarian governments are taking advantage of the US retreat from digital rights. China continues to export surveillance technology to countries across Africa and Asia. These systems allow regimes to maintain the economic benefits of the internet while suppressing political dissent and free speech.

The goal of the Internet Freedom program was to make censorship expensive and difficult for these regimes. By funding tools that leap the Great Firewall, the US forced censors to spend billions on new filters. Without US-funded competition, the cost of maintaining a digital iron curtain drops significantly.

In Russia, the Kremlin is working to isolate the domestic internet into a controlled information bubble. This process involves forcing local service providers to install government-controlled tracking equipment. The loss of US funding means Russian users have fewer ways to access independent news or secure communication channels.

The January 2025 crackdown in Iran demonstrated how quickly a government can fine-tune its control. Authorities allowed banking and commerce apps to function while blocking all social media and messaging platforms. The tools funded by the US were specifically designed to defeat this type of selective throttling.

Technologists in Tehran report that they are currently living in a grace period. They are using existing infrastructure built with past grants, but they cannot afford to scale their systems to meet rising demand. As more users attempt to bypass filters, the remaining servers are becoming overwhelmed and slow.

Europe faces pressure to fund

Several organizations previously funded by the US are now petitioning the European Union for emergency support. They argue that the collapse of these technologies will have direct consequences for European security and migration. Information blackouts in neighboring regions often precede humanitarian crises and political instability.

The EU has historically contributed smaller amounts to digital rights, but it lacks a centralized agency like the OTF. Setting up a new funding mechanism could take years, leaving a significant gap in the global defense of the internet. Some activists have already shuttered their offices in Berlin and London due to the funding shortfall.

Advocates for the program argue that the internet is the only way for people in closed societies to see the reality of the world outside their borders. When the US funds these tools, it promotes its own values of free expression and open markets. The withdrawal of this support marks a retreat from the "soft power" strategies that defined US foreign policy for twenty years.

The long-term effect of these cuts may be the permanent splintering of the internet. Without tools to bridge the gaps, the web will dissolve into a series of national intranets. This would allow governments to control every piece of information their citizens see, hear, and share.

For now, the developers who build these tools are waiting for a resolution to the OTF lawsuit. They continue to patch code and defend against state-sponsored hacking attempts with dwindling resources. The future of the global internet now depends on whether other democratic nations will step in to replace the $500 million investment previously led by the United States.