USAGM soliciting OTF partners as it withholds funds

The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is trying to lure away partners that have provided services for the Open Technology Fund (OTF) to work with a different agency it has stood up called the Office of Internet Freedom (OIF). Meanwhile, the controversy-wracked USAGM under Trump appointee Michael Pack has also been withholding funds from the OTF, a government-supported nonprofit focused on building software that advances internet freedom. Observers argue that the USAGM maneuver is an effort to move the funding of internet freedom projects out from under OTF's more rigorous requirements so that money can be funneled to projects favored by USAGM leadership.