How US Is Ensuring Russia Cannot Hide Ukraine News From Its Citizens
The US government has encouraged new funds to increase into three technology companies since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict to help Russia avoid censorship and access Western media, according to five people who are familiar with the situation.
Financing efforts are focused on three companies that build Virtual Private Networks (VPN) – Nthlink, Psiphon and Lantern – and are designed to support this new surge in their Russian users, the source said.
VPN helps users hide their identities and change their online locations, often to cut geographical restrictions on content or to avoid government sensor technology.
Reuters spoke with executives in the three VPNs supported by the US government and two officials in the non-profit organization funded by the US government who provided open technology financing (OTF)-who said the anti-sensor application had seen significant growth in Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched his war in Ukraine on February 24.
Between 2015 and 2021, the three VPNs received at least $ 4.8 million in the U.S. funds, according to the funding documents available to the public reviewed by Reuters. Since February, the total funds allocated to the company have increased almost half to overcome the increase in demand in Russia, five people who are familiar with the problem told Reuters.
Funding flows through the US Global Media Agency (USAGM)-A federal agent that oversees the US government, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty-Participant through Washington-based OTF, which is funded by the US Government and the Government supervised by USAGM.
Laura Cunningham, President of OTF, said the organization had increased its support for three VPNs because “the Russian government tried to censor what their citizens could be seen online to obscure the truth and silence differences of opinion.”
Sensor avoidance, including VPN, which is supported by OTF on average more than 4 million users last month in Russia, Cunningham added.
In a statement, USAGM also said they supported the development of various sensor additional devices, including VPN. It also does not provide the right data about their funds.
With the increase in Kremlin’s strong action in media freedom, we have seen an extraordinary surge in demand for these tools among Russian people,” said Spokesman USAGM Laurie Moy.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to the request for comments that were removed. In a statement, Kremlin rejected the accusation of online censorship: “We are not censoring the internet. Russia regulates certain web resources, such as many other countries in the world.”
Martin Zhu, Technical Director in Nthlink, said that his daily application users in Russia recently jumped after being promoted heavy by the US News-funded news website such as Voice of America: “The graphics changed from 1,000 days to 10,000 the following day, up to 30,000 The day after that, up to 50,000 and straight up. “
Zhu, who shared confidential data with Reuters who illustrated the surge of users, said his company would usually struggle to operate in Russia without financial support from the US government.
Nigel Gibbs, a public affairs officer for VOA, said that they regularly promote three VPNs on their network, and have integrated one of them, Psiphon, directly to the VOA smartphone application.
Mike Hull, CEO of Toronto-Headquartered Psiphon, said that the recent US government financing had played a role.” He said more than 1.3 million Russians a day use the Psiphon network.
