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The Open Technology Fund (OTF) has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Washington D.C. against the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and the Office of Management and Budget. In its lawsuit, the OTF is seeking a preliminary injunction to have the USAGM release the withheld funding. US President Donald Trump had previously issued a decree largely restricting the USAGM under the current legal situation. The OTF uses its funds to support the certification authority Let's Encrypt and the anonymization network Tor, among others.
OTF lacks 650,000 US dollars for operating costs
In its application, the OTF argues that the termination of the grant by the USAGM is unlawful, as the provision of the funding has already been decided by Congress. As part of this decision, a total amount of 43.5 million US dollars has been earmarked for 2025, which accounts for 98 percent of the OTF's funding. The USAGM oversees the financial and programmatic activities of the OTF and makes payments to the non-profit organization. The OTF had requested and not received a payment of around 650,000 US dollars for operating costs in March.
Kari Lake, executive CEO of USAGM and special advisor to the Trump administration, described the US agency in a statement as a "huge rot and burden on the American taxpayer" that also poses a national security risk. OTF Chairman Zack Cooper, on the other hand, argued that his organization is the most efficient and effective tool against censorship and influence peddling. An end to OTF projects "would weaken America's national security and keep millions of people around the world trapped behind authoritarian information firewalls", Cooper said.
Overall, the US government invests a lot of money in open source software. Last year, Let's Encrypt received around 800,000 US dollars in funding from the OTF, the Tor network received almost 500,000 US dollars and the open-source Android app store F-Droid received 396,000 US dollars. In total, the organization currently supports around 50 projects, including the development of the free VPN client OpenVPN. According to its information, the OTF has published around 2,500 patches for open-source software and the organization promotes VPNs for around 45 million people in countries with censorship. OTF President Cunningham sees the lawsuit as the only way to ensure the continued existence of these projects.