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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Activists sound alarm over US cuts to programs providing internet
access and promoting democracy in Iran
By Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Sean Lyngaas, CNN
Updated:
5:00 AM EDT, Thu July 3, 2025
Source: CNN
Days after Israel last month, a US non-profit that has provided
Starlink internet service to Iranian citizens asked the State
Department to urgently reinstate their funding, according to two
sources familiar with the outreach.
More than a week later, the request from NetFreedom Pioneers (NFP) has
not been granted.
At the same time, the White House has proposed cutting all but a few
programs in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights,
and Labor – including those that work to get Iranians internet
access, a third source familiar said.
The Trump administration has for months slashed foreign assistance, but
the freeze of NFP funding and the possible additional cuts at the State
Department came at a critical time as Iranian society grappled with the
Israeli strikes that hit sites throughout the country and killed senior
military leaders.
During the nearly two weeks of conflict between Iran and Israel, Tehran
imposed internet blackouts nationwide – leaving Iranians unable to
quickly access information or contact loved ones outside the country.
Within the State Department, career officials are frustrated that money
that could help Iranians isn’t getting out the door.
“Even if programs are active, a number of them are struggling because
payments aren’t being made on time,” a State Department official
familiar with the issue told CNN.
After Secretary Marco Rubio’s order to in January, a new level of
bureaucracy sunk in that has delayed funding disbursements for numerous
programs across the department, including those related to Iran, the
official said.
The State Department’s pending reorganization, and the proposed cuts
to aid programs, mean it’s hard for department officials to be
optimistic in conversations over funding with nonprofits, according to
the official.
“You can read the tea leaves whether you’re in the department or
not,” they added.
Though the Trump administration is pursuing a diplomatic deal with
Iran, President Donald Trump raised the idea of regime change in a
social media post the day after the US carried out strikes against
Iran’s nuclear sites. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
later implied that any regime change wouldn’t come through US force
while floating the idea of the Iranian people “rising up against”
the regime if it does not give up its nuclear program. But Iranians are
struggling for online access to independent information about their
government.
Activists say open internet access is crucial
“Without access to the open internet, Iranian people are trapped
inside the regime’s propaganda bubble. The Internet disruptions in
Iran allows the government to revive anti-American and anti-Israel
sentiment and rewrite the truth after the 12-day military conflict,”
said Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian-American democracy activist.
NFP, the non-profit organization, has received US government grants to
get the Elon Musk-backed Starlink kits inside Iran for more than two
years. Those kits have allowed Iranians to more easily access the
internet, avoid government censorship and access blocked sites, even
amid the blackouts.
“Iran is at a critical juncture, and millions depend on tools like
VPNs, Starlink, and satellite file-casting—many of which are
supported by US government funding—to access uncensored
information,” Evan Firoozi, the executive director of NFP, told CNN.
“The proposed termination of nearly all overseas pro-democracy
programs by the US government threatens to sever this vital lifeline,
leaving countless individuals without access to free and trustworthy
information,” he said.
Last year, the group received about $150,000 in US government funding
and expected to receive the same amount this year. But the grant was
unexpectedly halted in January amid the administration’s foreign aid
freeze, and the group has been given no clear indication when or if the
funding will be reinstated.
NFP worked to get about 200 Starlink kits inside Iran after the death
of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022 sparked massive protests nationwide.
The Iranian government throttled internet access inside the country as
part of its attempt to quell the unrest. There was a concerted effort
by the US government at the time to support internet access in Iran.
US funding for NFP helped to pay the subscription fees for the kits
inside Iran, develop technology for the kits to be used more
effectively, and enabled the group to get more kits into the country.
After the funding cut, only about half of the Starlink kits the group
managed to get into Iran are operational.
Some Trump officials have urged support for Starlink service in Iran.
“Can you turn on for free in Iran for the next few weeks, ?”
Richard Grenell, who currently serves as a special envoy and was the
former acting director of national intelligence in the first Trump
administration, posted on X on June 21. “My friends inside Iran
don’t have regular access to information right now.”
Grenell did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
NFP is not the only Iran-focused tech group pressing the Trump
administration for funding. Psiphon, an open-source software tool that
millions of Iranians use to evade censorship, is running out State
Department funding, according to Ali Tehrani, Psiphon’s director of
DC operations.
Tehrani told CNN that he has repeatedly appealed to the State
Department to disperse funds he says are available through the end of
the fiscal year in September, but State Department officials have not
committed to doing so. If the funding doesn’t arrive, he said, the
app simply won’t be available to Iranians at scale.
“It’s so ironic that when people actually need it, you just do not
have access,” Tehrani said. “That is exactly the time that the
Islamic Republic feeds their propaganda to them.”
Use of the Psiphon app in Iran surged during the 2022 protests over
Amini’s death, Tehrani said. “That was only possible because the
State Department back then was very cooperative in terms of making this
happen.”
The State Department did not provide a comment when asked about the
funding for NFP or Psiphon.
CNN has requested comment from Iran’s mission to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has
proposed widespread cuts at the State Department. Among the nearly 400
programs they recommended be cut from the State Department Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor are those fighting and tracking
internet censorship in places like Iran, the third source familiar told
CNN.
Other programs supported efforts to provide virtual private networks,
or VPNs, to allow free internet access in authoritarian countries.
The proposed cuts from OMB come in addition to the scores of foreign
assistance contracts that have already been slashed or suspended at the
State Department and now-defunct USAID.
It is unclear if the State Department will take OMB’s
recommendations, but the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor bureau is
expected to undergo a radical shift away from human rights work as part
of the agency’s reorganization plan.
Christopher Le Mon, who served as a deputy assistant in the bureau
during the Obama administration, criticized the potential cuts.
“Zeroing out millions of dollars a year in support for human rights
defenders, for the women and men fighting abuses by the awful regime in
Tehran is not only a moral travesty – it’s also completely at odds
with the Trump Administration’s own Iran policy, and goes against
years of directives and support for these programs from Republican and
Democratic Members of Congress including then-Senator Rubio,” he
said.
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