The U.S. State Department is launching an online platform to enable unrestricted internet access for people in authoritarian countries such as China and Iran. Analysts and Chinese dissidents have welcomed the move, but caution about the technical challenges it may face.
The initiative known as freedom.gov is headed by Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, who oversees the State Department’s Digital Freedom office. It’s expected to launch in the coming weeks.
“Freedom.gov is the latest in a long line of efforts by the State Department to protect and promote fundamental freedoms, both online and offline,” the State Department said in an email to The Epoch Times. “The project will be global in its scope, but distinctly American in its mission: commemorating our commitment to free expression as we approach our 250th birthday.”
The platform will be available as an app for iOS and Android devices.
Its website is currently under construction, while its front page says: “Freedom is coming. Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”
As Europe is tightening online content oversight, the upcoming app would allow people there to access content banned by their governments. Taking into account European rules and laws, freedom.gov “would be perceived in Europe as a U.S. effort to frustrate national law provisions,” said former State Department official Kenneth Propp, who worked on European digital regulations and is now at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center.
Meanwhile, news of the launch of the freedom.gov platform has been widely shared and welcomed by overseas Chinese communities and pro-democracy activists. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “Great Firewall” has restricted Chinese people’s access to overseas websites, and people’s censorship circumvention efforts have been suppressed.
Ji Feng, a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square students protests who still lives in mainland China, told The Epoch Times, “This is a great thing. It will allow Chinese people to better understand the real world outside and will awaken more and more ‘little pinks’ [pro-CCP nationalists]. The United States should have done this a long time ago!”
Du Caimo, a dissident in mainland China who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times that the United States launched the freedom.gov platform to support freedom of speech for people in countries where human rights are suppressed, so that the people can enjoy internet freedom and access the truth.
Tseng Yi-shuo, associate research fellow at the Cybersecurity division of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, noted that there are two types of internet restrictions: one is used by countries such as China and Iran, which restrict internet use and sometimes directly cut off internet access. The other type is used by the European Union, which requires platform operators to impose some restrictions on content.
“Some countries want to cut off internet access, which the United States can’t control, but as long as the internet isn’t cut off, people in these countries can use various methods to bypass the firewall. The United States hopes to provide a tool to maintain internet freedom.”
Possible Technical Challenges
The technical feasibility of freedom.gov remains to be seen, according to analysts.
A Xiaomi sales representative tends to customers at a shopping mall in Beijing on Jan. 15, 2025, amid a sluggish economy. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images
Wang Hsiu-wen, an assistant researcher at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security, told The Epoch Times that the State Department’s move aims to circumvent the CCP’s control over cyberspace, primarily targeting Chinese society.
“However, they might have overlooked the fact that Chinese brand mobile phones (such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and Huawei) are mainly heavily customized versions of the Android operating system (such as HyperOS and ColorOS), many of which are incompatible with iOS. Huawei phones mostly use their own HarmonyOS, which, while compatible with Android applications, does not support Google services. It remains unclear how Chinese citizens will be able to use this circumvention platform.”
Du said she believes that the new freedom.gov platform will attract Chinese users, “but to effectively bypass sophisticated censorship systems, continuous technological upgrades are necessary.” She warned that the CCP may have countermeasures, “such as strengthening internet surveillance or creating fake ‘security’ tools to mislead users, particularly by using rogue hackers to attack users.”
She added that users in mainland China may still face risks.
Tseng said that countries with less free internet access may impose more and more restrictions, which is something that the U.S. circumvention platform must consider when operating and should take into account in advance during the design process.
Ning Haizhong and Luo Ya contributed to this report.
