U.S. Department of State (DRL) Grant: Advancing Open-Source Technologies to Secure a Free and Open Internet

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for projects to strengthen the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms online through an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure global Internet, with a focus on technology development. Competitive proposals will develop and implement programs to develop, improve, implement, and sustain open-source technologies which serve as critical foundations for a free and open Internet.

Protecting the open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet requires a precise technical understanding of the open-source communication protocols and systems that operate behind the scenes to enable secure and private communications online (such as certificate authorities and the TLS protocol suite). The successful development, testing, security auditing, standardization, and implementation of these protocols and systems in ways that actively support a free and open internet has a critical impact on protections for human rights online. However, because these protocols and systems do not directly face the end-user, they are often unknown, overlooked, and unfunded.

In addition, authoritarian governments attempt to influence the fundamental character of the global Internet with the advancement of protocols and standards that enable more centralized Internet control, for the purposes of censorship and surveillance, as well as the abuse of other human rights. This initiative will allow DRL to invest in critical open source software and systems to protect the security and integrity of communications on the global Internet; to popularize, deploy, and sustain such technologies; and thus support the outcome that Internet infrastructure is designed to enable protections for fundamental freedoms and democratic principles, rather than enabling authoritarianism. This program will ensure that the Internet’s future evolution will remain consistent with its original democratic vision.

Consistent with the standards and goals of DRL’s Internet Freedom technology programs, the successful program will enable and encourage the protection and exercise of fundamental freedoms and human rights in contexts in which those rights are not otherwise respected by means of technologies that can restore or protect those rights and freedoms by design. DRL recognizes that a free and open Internet is necessary for the exercise of human rights and flourishing of democratic principles. The goal of such technology investment is the protection of human rights online through the development and implementation of open-source technology, and corresponding technical standards, that protect the open, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet at the level of the libraries (e.g. encryption or censorship circumvention software libraries), Internet communication protocols (e.g. Encrypted Client Hello [ECH], DNS Encryption [EDNS]) , and systems (e.g. certificate authorities, DNS providers) that undergird the operations of the internet itself.

In support of this goal, DRL is requesting program proposals to produce, support, innovate, implement, or advance the standardization of open-source internet technologies that provide software infrastructure and protocol functions for the sustainable protection and operation of an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet in ways that actively counter the progression of growing Internet restrictions by combatting repressive surveillance, censorship, and internet splintering.