The White House Urges US Tech Giants to Help Users in Iran and Russia Bypass Government Censorship

White House officials, in a meeting with major US tech giants, called for an increase in digital bandwidth from them for censorship circumvention tools using federal funding. According to Reuters, representatives from major tech companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Cloudflare attended this meeting held on Thursday. In recent years, the use of censorship circumvention tools has significantly increased in countries like Iran, Russia, and Myanmar, where authoritarianism prevails. Laura Cunningham, head of a US government-supported organization called the 'Open Technology Fund,' stated regarding the increased use of VPNs in Iran and Russia: 'For a decade, we regularly supported about 9 million VPN users monthly, and now that number has increased more than fourfold.' VPNs allow users to hide their identity and change their internet connection location. A VPN enables users to bypass geographic restrictions on content and escape government censorship by routing internet traffic through foreign servers beyond government control. The 'Open Technology Fund' particularly supports VPNs designed for citizens under the control of restrictive governments. Following the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the US government increased funding for this organization. However, the significant rise in demand for VPNs in countries like Iran, Russia, and Myanmar has created challenges for the 'Open Technology Fund.' In recent years, especially following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in the custody of the morality police, the United States has repeatedly promised to counter the restrictions imposed by the Iranian government against Iranians' access to free information flow as a sign of solidarity with Iranian protesters.