WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - When Mr Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker and ally of Mr Stephen Bannon, recently fired the heads of four United States government-funded news outlets, many became alarmed that he would turn the independently operated organisations, as well as the Voice of America, into "Trump TV".

But Mr Pack, the new chief executive of the US Agency for Global Media, also cleaned house last month at the lesser-known Open Technology Fund, an Internet freedom group overseen by the agency he now runs.

Many worry that the move could have an even greater effect.

In less than a decade, the Open Technology Fund has quietly become integral to the world's repressed communities. Over two billion people in 60 countries rely on tools developed and supported by the fund, like Signal and Tor, to connect to the Internet securely and send encrypted messages in authoritarian societies.

After Mr Pack was confirmed for his new post on June 4, following a personal campaign of support by US President Donald Trump, he fired the technology group's top officials and bipartisan board, an action now being fought in the courts. A federal judge last Thursday (July 2) ruled in Mr Pack's favour, a decision that plaintiffs will likely appeal against.

Last Friday, Mr Pack appointed Mr James Miles as an interim chief executive to head the fund, according to a letter obtained by The New York Times. Mr Miles is little known in the Internet freedom community, and his appointment needs approval from the fund's new board, which is stacked with Trump administration officials and chaired by Mr Pack.

The move was a victory for a lobbying effort backed by religious freedom advocates displeased with the fund's work and who are often allied with conservative political figures.

This battle revolves around software developed by Falun Gong, the secretive spiritual movement persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.

Some Falun Gong members have become notable players in American politics. The Epoch Times, a newspaper started by Falun Gong practitioners, has spent millions of dollars on pro-Trump ads, including conspiratorial ones, on Facebook and YouTube - and was even banned by Facebook last year from buying more ads because it had tried to evade advertising rules.

Now, allies of Falun Gong are making a big push for the Open Technology Fund and the State Department to give money to some of the group's software, notably Ultrasurf, developed about a decade ago by a Falun Gong member.

Their thinking is that if enough Chinese citizens have this software to bypass the Great Firewall of government censorship, the citizens will see news about repression by the Communist Party.

But pieces of circumvention software like Ultrasurf are considered old, and they are not widespread in China, according to cybersecurity experts. Just as important, Chinese patriots or nationalists who have access to reports critical of the Communist Party - including students in the United States - often do not change their views.

"Anyone who has studied China's information control regimes and the evolution of Chinese technology knows that funding a set of circumvention tools is not going to bring down the Chinese Communist Party," said Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, a former Beijing bureau chief for CNN who directs an Internet freedom programme at the New America Foundation that has received State Department funds before.

Critics also warn that if lobbyists get their way and shift the fund's focus toward solely supporting software like Ultrasurf, it could set back the fight for Internet freedom by decades.

Both Democrats and Republicans are worried. Leading Republican senators, Mr Marco Rubio of Florida and Mr Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, wrote to Mr Pack in a letter last Wednesday with five other senators expressing their "deep concern" about his staff cuts, saying the moves raised "serious questions about the future of the US Agency for Global Media" under his leadership. Other Republican members of Congress said earlier that they were concerned about the Open Technology Fund.

The group started in 2012 as a pilot programme within Radio Free Asia. It was founded by Ms Libby Liu, then the president of the broadcasting outlet. Seven years later, Congress allowed it to become an independent non-profit grantee of the Agency for Global Media. Lawmakers appropriated US$20 million (S$27.9 million) to the group for its 2020 fiscal year.

The bulk of the money goes to incubating new technology that promotes human rights and open societies. The group supports projects such as widely popular encrypted messaging tools like Signal and technology like Pakistan's first 24/7 hotline for confidentially reporting sexual harassment.

The Open Technology Fund also looks to create and train a community of technical experts who can fend off sophisticated cyberattacks against Internet freedom.

One of the bedrock principles of the Open Technology Fund is to support open-source technology. Creating and funding tools that are open source means a worldwide collective of programmers can examine the products to ensure they are safe and secure for people in repressed societies to use, cybersecurity experts say.

At the heart of lobbying efforts supporting the Falun Gong developers are Mr Michael Horowitz, a Reagan administration budget official, and Ms Katrina Lantos Swett, the daughter of former Representative Tom Lantos, a noted champion for human rights.

During the time Mr Pack assumed his role, they have worked to advance their agenda.

On June 13, three days after Mr Pack took office, Mr Horowitz was a guest on a talk show hosted by Mr Bannon, who was formerly Mr Trump's chief strategist. Mr Horowitz denounced Ms Liu, who was the chief executive of the technology fund. Ms Liu happened to be tendering her resignation to the board that day, effective in July. Mr Pack fired her on June 17 and dismissed the board.

Ms Swett has been vocal about her displeasure with leadership at the fund because they have shied away from focusing most of the group's funding toward programs like Ultrasurf. She claims it is one of the most effective tools to fight against China's firewall, despite criticism from experts who warn that since Ultrasurf is closed source, there is no way to independently verify its performance or assure end users that they are not being tracked.

"Open source versus closed source, we don't get hung up on those things," Ms Swett said.

Many Internet freedom experts disagree with this approach.

"There is no person in their right mind who should be advocating for closed-source applications," said Mr Nima Fatemi, the founding director of Kandoo, an Internet freedom nonprofit. "When we're talking about people inside Iran, China and Russia who are already facing so much oppression, using these tools don't guarantee safety or security; they actually put them in more danger."

The day after Mr Pack assumed office, Ms Swett sent him and officials at the State Department a letter requesting that US$20 million in funding be steered toward firewall circumvention programs like Ultrasurf. The State Department declined to comment.

And one day after Mr Pack fired Ms Liu, officials with the White House's National Security Council received communication from the Lantos Foundation advocating the funding of programs like Ultrasurf.

Ms Swett denied contacting the National Security Council herself, but she said she could not rule out whether someone on her foundation's staff reached out to the organisation. The National Security Council did not return an e-mail seeking comment.