dark web briefest intro - was Re: educate me Please

[z9wahqvh]

On Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 9:51 PM, Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at rushpost.com>
wrote:

>
> Maybe funded, as in past tense. The current Tor project is not dependent
> at all on US government funding that I can see. If you can prove
> otherwise, please post the proof.
>

proof is right there on Tor's own site. there is still substantial US
government funding. according to the Tor Project "Sponsors" page (
https://www.torproject.org/about/sponsors.html.en), current funders include:

-- the Open Technology Fund (https://www.opentech.fund/page/faq), a
subsidiary of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (http://www.bbg.gov/,
https://www.bbg.gov/who-we-are/mission/), a long-time sponsor of Tor, and
the US government agency that sponsors the various "Radio Free" projects
and has deep ties to CIA and other parts of the intelligence apparatus;
-- the National Science Foundation, the science funding body of the Federal
government.

Other funders who might raise red flags due to relatively deep involved
with both government and corporate power bases include SRI International, a
non-profit that works closely with the US government on many projects,
Media Democracy Fund, and Google.

of the direct US govt funders it is probably OTF that is most concerning &
the one that's been discussed by journalists and others. OTF is a... very
weird organization, and it's been the main target of those who've
criticized Tor's funding, other than past direct military funding.

NSF is pretty basic-science oriented and the grants that funded those are
publicly available & probably not for general operating funds.

also of note is that while that page says US State Dept funding ended in
2016, for some reason it remains listed under "Current sponsors." hard to
tell what "current" means since the page isn't dated. at any rate, State
was still a funder as of the latest annual Financial Report.

- z
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