Is The State Department Really Building "Freedom Tech"?
It appears that depends on whose freedom you're talking about.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) announced last week that it is joining defense contractors Palantir and Anduril Technologies, as well as the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, as founding members of the US State Department's newly created "Freedom Tech Excellence Program," an initiative to advance "digital freedom and freedom of expression globally."
The program is intended to bring "private sector talent to the Department for limited-term assignments to advance diplomatic efforts on key issues including online freedom of expression, privacy-enhancing technologies, countering digital surveillance, and responsible AI governance."
Under the program, partner organizations send their employees to the Department to contribute private sector expertise on issues such as:
- First Amendment and freedom of expression protections in the digital age
- Countering unlawful digital surveillance and online scams
- Privacy-enhancing technologies, including strong encryption and VPNs
- Responsible governance of emerging technologies, including AI
- Safeguarding children and other users online
"We are proud to announce that BPI is a founding partner in the @StateDept's new Freedom Tech Excellence Program," the Bitcoin Policy Institute wrote on X. "Tools like encryption and open monetary networks protect dissidents, journalists, and ordinary people living under authoritarian regimes."
While the program sounds well intended, the State Department's contracting of Bitcoin expertise appears rather curious at a time where CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis has described the currency as a tool that can be used to disrupt US adversaries and gather intelligence – particularly in light of the administration's recently defined objectives, and those whom they affect.
L0la L33tz
Persecuting Political Opponents
A bit over a week before the State Department announced the Freedom Tech Excellence Program, the State Department held a Ministerial Conference on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism.
At the event, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller described the left as a "cancer" that must be rooted out, making clear that not just those who commit left-wing terrorist acts, but also those who support left-wing violence pose a threat to US national security, as they "will create the conditions that allow that violence to go on without any meaningful inhibition."
"The jury has refused to convict ['left-wing terrorists'] for purely political reasons," Miller continued, claiming a threat to the US judicial system. "When you’ve reached that point, it demonstrates how deeply the cancer has begun to infest your society, where people have created an internal rationalization structure to justify unsanctioned violence against the state and state actors to achieve a political end."
As measures to suppress support for "left-wing violence," Miller directly cited the disruption of funding, as well as the debanking of left-wing organizations and supporters.
The fight against far-left terrorism "begins where every campaign of terror does: it’s financial lifeblood," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated at the event, noting that "America’s financial system is essential to its national security."
"Today, we are extending that abiding mission to meet an evolving threat," Bessent continued. "The resurgence of organized political terrorism has long occupied a blind spot. The international community has struggled to identify this danger, much less defeat it. But as the threat of terrorism evolves, the institution tools that defend against it must adapt," citing a "unified front between international Marxism and radical Islamic movements."
"It is our mandate to deny terrorist groups access to [the US financial system]," Bessent concluded. "No terror organization should delude itself into the belief that its financing lies beyond our reach."
L0la L33tz
Who is Being Debanked?
Just four days later, the State Department put forward a list of left-wing organizations and individuals it considers to be threatening US national security. Under the report, titled "CUBA – The Capital of 21st Century Communism," the State Department cites blacklists, and McCarthy-era investigations and prosecutions as effective tools to create a disillusionment of left-wing ideas – most of which had, ironically, been deemed unconstitutional after the fact.
The report names the anti-war non-profit Code Pink: Women for Peace as a "front" of the Cuban regime, citing the founder's ties to the country, as well as the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, among others – a political membership organization that works within the US democratic party, which has recently produced New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, as well as Ben & Jerry's ice cream founder Ben Cohen, also make appearances in the report.
"Cuba’s assault on the United States was never, at root, a quarrel over economic policy or sovereignty or even ownership of a particular territory," the State Department claims. "It was a revolution against Western civilization itself — waged, in part, via the novel and insidious method of persuading the children of the West to turn against their own inheritance."
But much more than advocacy for Cuba, the aforementioned individuals and organizations are rather united by another, much more vocal point of advocacy: their staunch opposition to the Israeli Government and its ongoing genocide on Palestinians.
NSPM-7, a Presidential Memorandum issued last year that designated anti-capitalist and anti-fascist views as threats to US national security, as well as an Executive Order deeming the loosely-organized political belief group Antifa a foreign terrorist organization, have already led to the debanking of left-wing organizations beyond US borders, with international banks citing fears of being cut off from the Dollar market.
At the same time, the Trump administration has gone as far as prosecuting donors to Palestinian causes on terrorism charges, has publicly stated to weaponize financial infrastructure to target immigrants for deportation, expanded the Bank Secrecy Act via Executive Order at the expense of naturalized citizens and green card holders, has introduced a Bill in Congress that continues to expand the PATRIOT Act to cover digital assets, and is actively continuing to prosecute developers of privacy software, as well as those making use of it.
Shinobi
Actions Over Words, or Words Over Actions?
If actions speak louder than words, is the US State Department really contracting Bitcoin expertise to protect the constitution's values? Not to mention alongside Palantir, one of the starkest beneficiaries both of the administration's pro-surveillance operations, as well as its ongoing support for the Israeli Government?
Or may it rather be looking to better understand how to surveil and disrupt its use by those whom it opposes, as Deputy CIA Director Ellis has said?
Bitcoin Policy Institute President David Zell continues to believe in the administration's good intentions, citing a 2025 Executive Order meant to guarantee the access to banking for all.
"We have opposed politicized debanking across two administrations," Zell tells The Rage. "Cutting people off from the financial system over their beliefs corrodes a free society."
"We believe technologies that make debanking and censorship of speech impossible are squarely in America's strategic interest," Zell continues. "When people anywhere on earth can spend and speak as they please, our authoritarian rivals lose the machinery they rule through. We joined the Freedom Tech Excellence Program to help the government understand this."
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