Appointment of Michael Pack as CEO of US Agency for Global Media has put internet freedom projects in crisis mode

One of the US government’s strongest forces for internet freedom is in danger, and supporters are calling on the public for help. The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a small US organization devoted to protecting digital speech across the world, has helped support nearly all of the most prominent encryption projects at various points — including Signal, Tails, Qubes, and the Tor Project. But after the abrupt firing of the fund’s entire leadership team, current recipients say their contractually promised funding is now at risk. “Very concretely, this would mean that we wouldn’t be able to upgrade the app’s security architecture, putting our users at risk,” said Raphael Mimoun, who operates the evidence-protection app Tella. “Without OTF support, it’s unclear how and where technologists and activists would meet, and whether the internet freedom community would even survive.” 

The OTF has found itself in danger after the appointment of Michael Pack as CEO of its overseeing agency, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Pack has made severe changes across the USAGM, which also manages Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. Those changes came to a head at OTF recently, with the abrupt resignation of OTF CEO Libby Liu. “I have become aware of lobbying efforts to convince the new USAGM CEO to interfere with the [2020 OTF budget],” Liu wrote in an email on June 13. “While I am still permitted to stay in my seat, I will continue to work to protect this organization.” Just four days later, Pack abruptly fired Liu rather than allowing her to serve her remaining term, along with the president and the entire board of OTF. Pack hasn’t given a precise justification for the firings, but many of the outgoing leaders claim it is part of a broader move to abandon many of the fund’s existing projects.