Concern has been raised about the future of the Open Technology Fund, a U.S.-government funded nonprofit corporation that develops internet freedom tools after a possible shift in its focus driven by the Trump administration.

Founded in 2012 and funded as an independent grantee corporation of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the OTF aims to support internet freedom technologies to increase freedom of expression and to circumvent censorship.

The OTF is best known for its support of open-source technologies that are used to circumvent censorship and protect user privacy, including Signal, Tails, Qubes and the Tor Project.

The drama surrounding the OTF begins with the appointment of Michael Pack as the chief executive officer of USAGM, which also manages Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. Libby Liu, the CEO of OTF, resigned from the corporation last week, claiming that she had become aware of lobbying efforts by Pack to shift the OTF’s focus to closed-source circumvention tools.

In her resignation, Liu attached an email copy of a letter from Katrina Lantos Swett, the president of the Lantos Foundation for Hunan Rights & Justice, which lobbied Pack to direct $20 million to fund censorship circumvention tools Freegate, Lantern, Psiphon and Ultrasurf. The issue appears to be that though all four are designed to bypass censorship, they primarily have a focus on China and are not open source.

Following Lui’s resignation, Pack then fired Lui, who remained on the board of OTF along with the president of the corporation and the entire board as well. According to The Verge, no explanation has been given for the decision to fire the board.

The Trump administration itself has said nothing as yet as to its plans for the OTF. But a bipartisan bill, H.R. 6621 The Open Technology Fund Authorization Act, was introduced into the House of Representatives in April that would support the corporation’s efforts in combating censorship. The bill is currently sitting in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Those opposed to the supposed unannounced changes have started a petition, claiming that “as the fight for free expression escalates, the U.S. is in danger of losing the most effective program that Congress has at its disposal for defending internet freedom.”

The petition claims that the alleged proposed changes will see the USAGM “dismantle OTF and re-allocate all of its U.S. government funding to support a narrow set of anti-censorship tools without a transparent and open review process.” They argue that it’s vital that the technologies supported by the OTF are open source, since closed-source tools would limit the number of people able to access them as well as make them less secure.

Even though focusing on China is one of the allegations made against the as-yet announced changes, the petition ends with “today, millions rely on technology incubated by OTF to break free of the Great Firewall. We urge Congress to sustain its support for this vital institution so that the United States can continue to enable those living in internet-repressive environments to speak, think, associate, and worship freely online.”

Image: OTF