Say I'm a UK citizen with advanced glioblastoma (implying loss of faculties, seizures, and pain; no cure, and things to worsen before eventually passing away, possibly some time from now). Suppose I wish to view websites on euthanasia options, but am blocked from doing so by the UK's Online Safety Act.
How does/will Freedom.gov help? (is it essentially a free VPN?)
Also, as others have pointed out, couldn't the censoring government simply block access to freedom.gov?
schoen 2 hours ago [-]
I just chaired a session at the FOCI conference earlier today, where people were talking about Internet censorship circumvention technologies and how to prevent governments from blocking them. I'd like to remind everyone that the U.S. government has been one the largest funders of that research for decades. Some of it is under USAGM (formerly BBG, the parent of RFE/RL)
and some of it has been under the State Department, partly pursuant to the global Internet freedom program introduced by Hillary Clinton in 2010 when she was Secretary of State.
I'm sure the political and diplomatic valence is very different here, but the concept of "the U.S. government paying to stop foreign governments from censoring the Internet" is a longstanding one.
reactordev 2 hours ago [-]
It goes deeper than that. The U.S. Government funds it, discourages other nations from using it, and spies on all web traffic as a result of it.
Almost 80% of communications go through a data center in Northern VA. Within a quick drive to Langley, Quantico, DC, and other places that house three letter agencies I’m not authorized to disclose.
recursive 2 hours ago [-]
Speed of light establishes certain latency minima. Experimental data can falsify (or not) at geographical locations far enough from VA.
reactordev 1 hours ago [-]
Correct but local governments using Palantir will need to provide it to them somehow.
Waterluvian 2 hours ago [-]
It’s a clear way to project soft power: make sure your message and culture can get through.
nomilk 7 minutes ago [-]
It might do that too, but access to information is just so utterly critical, and exponentially moreso in circumstances where government brutally cracks down on it, as we saw in Egypt during the Arab Spring and we're seeing in Iran presently.
Aloisius 32 minutes ago [-]
Didn't Doge gut the USAGM?
learingsci 2 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
mossTechnician 1 hours ago [-]
Shortly after the American version of TikTok was established in January of 2026, users began reporting that certain content was creating error messages, including using words like "Epstein" in direct messages, which news outlet CNBC was able to replicate and confirm, with the error message reading: "This message may be in violation of our Community Guidelines, and has not been sent to protect our community." Other users reported similar messages for content critical of U.S. President Donald Trump or other topics.
Nothing stops them from hosting it on fbi.gov, state.gov, etc.
It's one thing to block some random .gov site unused for anything else, it's another thing to block domains that one uses for online communications for things like coordinating international criminal investigations or sharing intelligence or filing flight plans.
crest 2 hours ago [-]
They wouldn't dare ban a .gov domain and we will hide all of behind Cloudflare! /s
tills13 2 hours ago [-]
A state sponsored vpn is probably not (only) gonna do what you think it's doing.
ivan_gammel 2 hours ago [-]
If something looks like MITM, chances are it is MITM.
engineer_22 1 hours ago [-]
What's MITM?
trelane 1 hours ago [-]
Man In The Middle. They're saying that the US is intercepting the traffic.
You can also call it "U.S. government spying on Europeans".
25 minutes ago [-]
reisse 2 hours ago [-]
Fun hypothetical question - will it be restricted to users in sanctioned locations (where it's most needed) because of, well, sanctions?
iugtmkbdfil834 2 hours ago [-]
Amusingly, there typically are various exceptions made for those. All technical and whatnot, but for example, Iran is heavily sanctioned, but has all sorts of exceptions for stuff like that precisely because of the impact it can have.
diego_moita 12 minutes ago [-]
Can it be used to help people in the Bible Belt watch porn?
nomilk 9 minutes ago [-]
I think the states themselves don't block porn, but require sites to verify users' ages, and sites would rather block access to those states than comply. (although not sure how they do that from a technical standpoint, based on IP geolocation, perhaps?)
walthamstow 2 hours ago [-]
So it'll have porn?
general1465 2 hours ago [-]
I wonder if American citizens from states which requires age verification to access porn (25 US states today) will be fine with it or these states will start demanding ID to access freedom.gov. It would be delicious irony.
Animats 2 hours ago [-]
Right. Porn will probably be most of the traffic. The number of people in Europe who really want to access US neo-Nazi sites is probably not large.
graemep 2 hours ago [-]
There is a lot more blocked than porn and neo-nazis. This will also allow access to sites that block access because of laws: Imgur is not accessible from the uk, nor are a lot of smaller US news sites. Ofcom are after 4 chan too.
1 hours ago [-]
crest 2 hours ago [-]
Government mandated uncensored free porn access. I wonder if this will this also apply in US states requiring age verification to legally access such content?
kojacklives 2 hours ago [-]
They will probably (first) have to bounce off freedom.ccTLD
for any ccTLD but .us.
mlh496 1 hours ago [-]
Sad that western Europe is pushing so hard for limits to free speech & privacy. I'm not surprised given their history, but it's sad nonetheless.
touwer 30 minutes ago [-]
It's not sad. It's smart to ban hate speech, blatant lies and things like that. We know, we had the Nazis. Seems the US still has to learn a lesson or two, considering the current political situation. Hope it will not be as bad
LAC-Tech 9 minutes ago [-]
This argument has always struck me as ridiculous. You think if only the Weimar Republic had had Hate Speech laws everything would have been fine?
perching_aix 6 minutes ago [-]
Right, I guess the people there just magically all woke up one day hating the jews and voting in Hitler. Crazy how that happens. Why do political factions even spend money on campaigning? Those silly geese.
astro1138 2 hours ago [-]
Is that going to accelerate copyright violations for AI training? https://cuiiliste.de/domains contains just a lot of piracy sites.
general1465 2 hours ago [-]
It is like ultimate throwing stones in a glass house. Americans are dependent on other countries following IP and copyright protections and yet they will go great lengths to undermine it because it is short term beneficial for their companies.
ortusdux 2 hours ago [-]
The quest for quarterly returns will be our downfall.
panny 18 minutes ago [-]
Can I use freedom.gov to bypass age verification though? :)
ReflectedImage 2 hours ago [-]
So going forward all countries will be providing citizens of other countries free access to the internet whilst censoring their own citizens?
Weird title, but worthy of discussion. From the little info available so far this appears to be little more than political posturing. If you want to fight censorship, an "online portal" to access all the censored content is the wrongest possible way to go about it. But we'll see.
The point is for them to track their users, which they can't do if their users are all using Tor.
csrse 1 hours ago [-]
Fantastic! Now EU just needs to setup freedomgov.eu that bounces off freedom.gov so americans also can browse whatever with no restrictions.
Aloisius 59 minutes ago [-]
What restrictions do Americans have now that would make that useful?
17 minutes ago [-]
pjc50 2 hours ago [-]
But will they put the complete Epstein files on there?
sgnelson 22 hours ago [-]
Why? Seriously, why do we care so much about this?
Do we not have better uses of our money. Also the irony considering recent moves by the US government in terms of control of the internet and free speech.
ericmay 2 hours ago [-]
> Also the irony considering recent moves by the US government in terms of control of the internet and free speech.
Well you've got plenty of countries doing it, including France, Iran, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Brasil, Australia, you name it. Not that it's good, but a criticism for the goose is a criticism for the gander, as a manner of speaking.
As to which, why or why do we care so much about this? Idk, same reason our government funds tens of thousands of initiatives and cares about lots of different things that people find equally important or unimportant.
mrighele 2 hours ago [-]
Historically the US did care a lot, in a way it reminds me of the Crusade for Freedom [1] and Radio Free Europe [2].
So I find this in line with the behavior of many American administration, the weird thing being that this time the target is not the just usual suspects (China, Iran, etc.) but also European allies.
(not saying this is a good thing btw, just trying to put it in perspective)
Ironically, this effectively is a pro-Trump comment because it's the Trump administration that defunded US propaganda outlets.
idiotsecant 2 hours ago [-]
No, the Trump administration is an enormous supporter of propaganda outlets, just not the ones that already existed. They don't care about maintaining the rules based world order. Their propaganda is much more inward-focused.
throw-the-towel 2 hours ago [-]
You're probably right, I was speaking as someone from outside the States, and hence more familiar with the outside-focused US outlets.
carlosjobim 8 hours ago [-]
These things have been going on forever. Since WWII and until right now, there has been radio stations broadcasting into enemy territory, to bypass censorship.
idiotsecant 2 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
sunshine-o 2 hours ago [-]
I would have loved to be in the meeting where they were wondering how to replace the highly costly and complex influence tool that was USAID, and then someone said:
- Why don't we just make a website?
- Yes let's just do that.
derelicta 2 hours ago [-]
Great! I sure hope it means Americans will stop censoring pro-Palestinian and pro-workers movements!
12 hours ago [-]
2 hours ago [-]
JumpinJack_Cash 1 hours ago [-]
After the Trump checks and the Trump jabs ....the Trump porn?
I'd rather not...
verdverm 12 hours ago [-]
What even is this? It looks to technically be Next JS with a single canvas element. But what does in protend...?
visuals with the only text on screen being...
---
"Freedom is Coming"
Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression.
Get ready.
apothegm 12 hours ago [-]
What it is is a teaser for what will undoubtedly be a giant load of far-right propaganda.
verdverm 3 hours ago [-]
Turns out it's to "uncensor" content blocked in other countries, which we know will be a process free of bias /s
They also gutted the prior org that helped people do this in other countries on the ground
2OEH8eoCRo0 2 hours ago [-]
How long until Europe says, "fuck your copyright claims then?"
crest 2 hours ago [-]
Just tell everyone who wants to downloads warez to use the US .gov VPN and refuse to resolve the IP addresses when they complain.
I'm in France, I browse reddit daily. Don't know what the two of you were smoking while in Paris but it must have been very strong.
touwer 33 minutes ago [-]
All these strange stories about Europe. Reddit is not blocked in France. I live in Paris and can access it as usual
Keats 1 hours ago [-]
It isn't blocked? I'm in France and I can see it just fine.
Mesmoria 1 hours ago [-]
I couldn't find any news items or announcement about France blocking access to reddit. Any links to this?
rkomorn 1 hours ago [-]
Reddit is currently blocked nationwide in France? I can't seem to easily find corroborating info.
well_ackshually 18 minutes ago [-]
Then saily or whatever esim provider she used is dogshit and mitm'd her at every step lmao
Reddit is not blocked anywhere in France.
JumpinJack_Cash 1 hours ago [-]
France of all countries is the least I expected, but I guess their stance on libertine sex has nothing to do with porn
tristor 1 hours ago [-]
French courts /love/ to do blocking orders. Of all the Western European nations, they have the most expansive use of DNS blocking, and other technical orders from courts. Sometimes related to the mundane things you might imagine like counter-terrorism, anti-piracy, and obscenity, but sometimes for absolutely bonkers reasons nobody agrees with.
Knowing what I know about French blocking orders, I wouldn't be surprised if all of Reddit got blocked because of an order related to a single comment, instead of some larger reason that might make sense in the meta.
xvxvx 1 days ago [-]
The world will be exposed to hardcore pornography, child endangerment, AI CSAM, and militant algorithms by force, if needed!
Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine (2018) directly claims the internet is “the most effective weapon the government has ever built,” tracing its roots to Pentagon counterinsurgency projects like ARPA’s efforts in Vietnam-era surveillance.
The book argues surveillance was “woven into the fabric” from the start, linking early ARPANET development to intelligence goals, and extends to modern tech giants like Google as part of a military-digital complex.
reisse 2 hours ago [-]
When U.S. Govt sponsors Tor, which does expose exactly what your describe, the reaction is usually positive.
freitasm 2 hours ago [-]
"Portal team includes former DOGE member Coristine"
"...user activity on the site will not be tracked."
Ok, stopped reading right there.
Hamuko 2 hours ago [-]
The joke that I saw online was "Does it have Colbert on it?"
cyberax 2 hours ago [-]
Yes, but you'll have to spend equal time browsing Pravda^W Truth Social.
Rendered at 23:37:02 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Say I'm a UK citizen with advanced glioblastoma (implying loss of faculties, seizures, and pain; no cure, and things to worsen before eventually passing away, possibly some time from now). Suppose I wish to view websites on euthanasia options, but am blocked from doing so by the UK's Online Safety Act.
How does/will Freedom.gov help? (is it essentially a free VPN?)
Also, as others have pointed out, couldn't the censoring government simply block access to freedom.gov?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agency_for_Globa...
and some of it has been under the State Department, partly pursuant to the global Internet freedom program introduced by Hillary Clinton in 2010 when she was Secretary of State.
I'm sure the political and diplomatic valence is very different here, but the concept of "the U.S. government paying to stop foreign governments from censoring the Internet" is a longstanding one.
Almost 80% of communications go through a data center in Northern VA. Within a quick drive to Langley, Quantico, DC, and other places that house three letter agencies I’m not authorized to disclose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_TikTok
It's one thing to block some random .gov site unused for anything else, it's another thing to block domains that one uses for online communications for things like coordinating international criminal investigations or sharing intelligence or filing flight plans.
You can also call it "U.S. government spying on Europeans".
Weird title, but worthy of discussion. From the little info available so far this appears to be little more than political posturing. If you want to fight censorship, an "online portal" to access all the censored content is the wrongest possible way to go about it. But we'll see.
Seriously though... we have one segment undermining foreign lockdowns while the same and other segments are literally doing the same here.
[0]: https://www.torproject.org/about/supporters/
Do we not have better uses of our money. Also the irony considering recent moves by the US government in terms of control of the internet and free speech.
Well you've got plenty of countries doing it, including France, Iran, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Brasil, Australia, you name it. Not that it's good, but a criticism for the goose is a criticism for the gander, as a manner of speaking.
As to which, why or why do we care so much about this? Idk, same reason our government funds tens of thousands of initiatives and cares about lots of different things that people find equally important or unimportant.
So I find this in line with the behavior of many American administration, the weird thing being that this time the target is not the just usual suspects (China, Iran, etc.) but also European allies.
(not saying this is a good thing btw, just trying to put it in perspective)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_for_Freedom
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert...
- Why don't we just make a website?
- Yes let's just do that.
I'd rather not...
visuals with the only text on screen being...
---
"Freedom is Coming"
Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.
They also gutted the prior org that helped people do this in other countries on the ground
https://freedom.gov/
you're too kind
Reddit is not blocked anywhere in France.
Knowing what I know about French blocking orders, I wouldn't be surprised if all of Reddit got blocked because of an order related to a single comment, instead of some larger reason that might make sense in the meta.
Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine (2018) directly claims the internet is “the most effective weapon the government has ever built,” tracing its roots to Pentagon counterinsurgency projects like ARPA’s efforts in Vietnam-era surveillance.
The book argues surveillance was “woven into the fabric” from the start, linking early ARPANET development to intelligence goals, and extends to modern tech giants like Google as part of a military-digital complex.
"...user activity on the site will not be tracked."
Ok, stopped reading right there.