For perspective, the same entity, Open Tech Fund (OTF), has funded many projects in the tools-for-activists space, including Signal, NoScript, Wireguard, Tails, Mediawiki, OpenVPN, Filezilla, Psiphon, Tahoe-LAFS, Briar, Lantern, and Qubes.[1]
Quite a lot of serious projects in this space are US-government funded.
OTF does somewhat focus on needs in regions that are geopolitical priorities for the US, but since most of these projects (like Signal or Wireguard) are building general purpose tools, it seems pretty good for the world overall and not nefarious. Germany recently started a similar fund and hopefully more countries will too! [2]
(I know people involved in both OTF and Sovereign Tech Fund I work with a user researcher who's funded by a small grant from OTF on my project Quiet.[3])
One funny historical note is that OTF grew out of Radio Free Asia, a program started after the Tiananmen Square massacre to broadcast AM, satellite and shortwave pro-democracy propaganda in Mandarin into China.[4] So the mission of funding general purpose anti-censorship and privacy tools kinda makes sense!
Quite a lot of serious projects in this space are US-government funded.
OTF does somewhat focus on needs in regions that are geopolitical priorities for the US, but since most of these projects (like Signal or Wireguard) are building general purpose tools, it seems pretty good for the world overall and not nefarious. Germany recently started a similar fund and hopefully more countries will too! [2]
(I know people involved in both OTF and Sovereign Tech Fund I work with a user researcher who's funded by a small grant from OTF on my project Quiet.[3])
One funny historical note is that OTF grew out of Radio Free Asia, a program started after the Tiananmen Square massacre to broadcast AM, satellite and shortwave pro-democracy propaganda in Mandarin into China.[4] So the mission of funding general purpose anti-censorship and privacy tools kinda makes sense!
1. https://www.opentech.fund/results/supported-projects/
2. https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/
3. https://tryquiet.org
4. https://www.opentech.fund/about/our-history/ & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Asia