Re: <nettime> Surveillance Valley - a polemic review

[Carsten Agger <agger@modspil.dk>]

On 04/06/2018 01:19 PM, Patrice Riemens wrote off-list, I'm bringing it 
in with his permission:
> I knew from day one that TOR was co-financed by the USgov, just like 
> ICANN is.
> But the USGov is not a monolith, agencies are fairy autonomous and 
> some are very much so. I was never really bothered. Jake also never 
> made a mystery of it. Still one can be very opposed to the USGov, but 
> then other deppts/agencies, like NSA,FBI,CIA (who love to fight each 
> other btw)

Like I wrote to Patrice, I didn't really bother until I read the story 
and the history more closely, checking some of the reference in 
Surveillance Valley (i.e., Yasha Levine's book).

I'm not an anti-government libertarian (well, technically speaking I'm a 
*left* libertarian, being from the European tradition), so I realize the 
American government is doing many sensible things.

However, for many years (and still, indirectly through the Open 
Technology Fund), Tor's main sponsor was the Broadcasting Board of 
Governors, the BBG.  The BBG is not just any odd part of the US 
Government - it's not the weather service, nor is it the national parks. 
The BBG is a branch that originated in the CIA but was later split out 
as its own entity in order to run the American propaganda radios such as 
Voice of America, with a very long etcetera, including Radio Free Asia. 
That is, the BBG was conceived as a branch of the American foreign 
policy aimed at destabilizing the governments of countries deemed 
hostile to the United States of America. That is, it's practically a 
part of the American military, practicing the very same sort of  
belligerence that gave us the war against Iraq in 2003, also known as 
the 21st century's so far greatest crime against humanity.

I think this connection is, politically speaking, very problematic for 
Tor. Did the BBG fund Tor to help Americans protect their privacy? Of 
course not, they did it to further their mission, the destabilization of 
"hostile" countries. And the BBG was not just a philanthropic "here's 
the money, we trust you" sponsor - the Tor project worked as a 
contractor, including project management, goals and monthly briefings to 
the BBG.

At the same time, even if some of this story could be gleaned from the 
public financial reports, this was very definitely not how Tor presented 
itself to the world, nor how it was presented by the EFF and by 
thousands of privacy activists - it was presented as a free software 
project run by a privacy NGO. While at the same time it was funded by an 
agency who was actually buying a cyberwar weapon for the "soft" 
information and propaganda wars against e.g. Russia, China and Iraq.

Why would the BBG then want the Tor project to market itself as a 
privacy project? Well, to gain credibility. If you said to a Russian or 
an Iranian that this is American military software they made to keep 
dissidents safe, why would they trust it? All Iranian or Chinese 
dissidents would probably resent the idea that they were using a tool 
"with" the American government and "against" them all. But a privacy 
NGO, EFF backing, thousands of activists acting as a cover - now, this 
tool which the BBG (by its very mission) funds as a part of the 
political machinations of the US colonial project gets a benevolent, 
human rights activist face. And ain't that nice?

Does that mean that I'm accusing Tor founder Roger Dingledine of being 
duplicitous about this? No, but it *does* mean that I'm accusing him of 
being politically naive. If you want to stick it to the Man you really 
shouldn't be working for him.

Honestly, like I said, after this I find it difficult to recommend Tor 
as a project. The tool, maybe, for specific things, but honestly - I 
think I'd like a privacy tool whose ongoing funding isn't part of the 
American war effort.

Best
Carsten

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