2/24/26, 11:34 AM US funding for global internet freedom ‘effectively gutted’ | Censorship | The Guardian out these technologies, and the groups that build them. Censorship regimes are getting worse worldwide. “It’s a massive blow. The need is bigger and other funding is also gone. Organisations that provide these tools are being overwhelmed,” said the digital rights expert. “It’s not sustainable.” Some of the groups working on these technologies have laid off staff; others are continuing without pay. A few hold out hope that some money can be restored – although they fear that the Trump administration might more overtly politicise its aims. While a recent appropriations bill contains a budget line for Internet Freedom, it names no specific programmes as recipients of this cash. Others say they’re existing in a brief grace period as the rest of the funds run out. “Everybody’s just waiting right now, to be honest. But at the same time, wait at your own risk,” said an Iranian technologist funded through Internet Freedom. Meanwhile, censorship tech is growing cheaper and easier to access. Chinese companies have exported sophisticated middleboxes – devices that sit on network cables and allow authorities to monitor internet traffic – to countries across Africa and Asia in the past year. These allow regimes such as Iran’s to fine-tune their control over the domestic internet – allowing commerce to continue, for example, while communication is throttled. Several recipients of the US money expressed hope that Europe might fund these technologies in the future; some have already petitioned EU officials for funding. The cuts “make it easier to build a ‘digital iron curtain’. It makes it easier for the Kremlin to put Russians in a digital information bubble that reinforces specific narratives about people outside of Russia. This makes it easier for China to do this. For Iran to do this,” one said. A state department spokesperson said it “consistently pushes back on censorship and digital repression”, and that it is “reviewing and realigning US foreign assistance to move faster, operate more effectively, and innovate”. They added that the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), one of the main administrators of Internet Freedom, was “refocused under https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/19/us-funding-for-global-internet-freedom-effectively-gutted 4/5