全球智库信息集成服务系统

There is little reported evidence that the Internet freedom tools funded by DRL assist illicit activities in a material way, vis-à-vis tools that predated or were developed without DRL funding.

• Conversely, DRL-funded tools can and do provide crucial capabilities to netizens (non-criminal users of the Internet) — specifically human rights activists — either because they are freely available, easy to use, marketed and available to human rights supporters, or because they operate in the user's native language. Further, given the wealth and diversity of other privacy, security, and social media tools and technologies, there exist numerous alternatives that would likely be more suitable for criminal activity, either because of reduced surveillance and law enforcement capabilities, fewer restrictions on their availability, or because they are custom built by criminals to suit their own needs.

The development of Internet freedom tools and technologies is a worthwhile endeavor.

• Such tools provide a material capability to netizens and human rights activists that they may otherwise not have, while criminals and others who seek to use such technologies for illicit purposes have alternatives available that offer capabilities equal or even preferable to those offered by DRL-funded tools.