Nadim Kobeissi wrote: > Here's the thing: you ultimately have two types of software that the > U.S. is interested in funding: > > *Software Type A:* Software that protects useful dissidents and anyone > else from all governments (to an extent), including the U.S. government. > *Software Type B:* Software that protects useful dissidents in certain > countries from their own governments (that the U.S. wants overthrown > because they are very inconvenient to its foreign affairs, like maybe > Iran under Ahmadinejad), but that the U.S. government itself can crack. > > *The scary thing here* is that the U.S. would, from a realist > standpoint, be more interested in funding type B software than type A > software, since type B software would satisfy /both// /its domestic > and foreign goals, while type A would only satisfy its foreign goals
You're not wrong, but it's also the case that Type A software is typically pitched and funded as though it were Type B software. Software like Tor is frequently touted as helping (for example) the Arab Spring, and while I could be wrong, that's the type of angle that most circumvention projects use when trying to get funding from US entities. There are lots of reasons for this, mostly that funding from nonprofits is "project-based" -- meaning X app or feature Y that furthers the NGO's long-term goals. When it comes to the US government writ large, yeah, a lot of grants have an interesting global angle. But there are software grants that are hyperlocal as well. In terms of circumvention, government policies hint at the idea that America is always in the right. Americans have nothing to hide, nothing to fear, from their government and therefore don't need circumvention tech. Americans aren't surveilled, no one's privacy is invaded, and no one here is censored. Everything is fine and nothing is broken. With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense that anti-censorship work is mostly funded as it applies elsewhere. But you're just as likely to find a hyperlocal app about where to get a free HIV test being funded as something with global impact like Tor. best, Griffin -- "Cypherpunks write code not flame wars." --Jurre van Bergen #Foucault / PGP: 0xAE792C97 / OTR: sa...@jabber.ccc.de My posts, while frequently amusing, are not representative of the thoughts of my employer. -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
