U.S. Department of State, Bureau of DRL announces 2019 Internet Freedom Annual Program Statement

Deadline: 20 September 2019

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) of the US Department of State has announced a Request for Statements of Interest (RSOI) from organizations interested in submitting Statements of Interest (SOI) for programs that support Internet Freedom.

In support of the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace, DRL’s goal is to protect the open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet by promoting fundamental freedoms, human rights, and the free flow of information online through integrated support to civil society for technology, digital safety, policy and advocacy, and applied research programs.  DRL invites organizations interested in potential fundingto submit SOI applications outlining program concepts that reflect this goal.

Funding Themes

Funding Theme #1: Technology: Uncensored and Secure Access to the Global Internet

• Development of and support for desktop and mobile technologies that counter censorship and/or enable secure communications. These tools should be tailored to the needs of human rights defenders and the acute and diverse threats they face. The tool design and deployment should be informed by user-centered design that is focused on these communities, and these tools should be supported on the platforms (desktop, mobile, etc.) that these communities most use. Projects may include but are not limited to:
  • Development of new technologies for defeating censorship, for maintaining availability of information, for secure communications, for privacy protection, and online services, such as email and website hosting, with robust defenses against hacking and other attacks.
  • Improvements to proven technologies including distribution, expansion, adaptation, and/or localization of proven anti-censorship or secure communication technologies; and improvement of usability and user interfaces to enable broader populations of users to adopt such tools.
  • Re-usable libraries or protocols to provide the underlying software components that may be used by anti-censorship and secure communication tools.
• Areas of Focus:
  • Scalable and sustainable next-generation anti-censorship and secure communication technologies, especially for platforms that generally have less support for anti-censorship and secure communication.
  • Next-generation malware detection and mitigation systems.
  • Alternative distribution and sustainability models for anti-censorship tools, such as white label and branded content apps.