SFP#50: Policy and EU: How NGI wants to save the Internet and what's next?

The European Union's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, which provides funding for Free Software projects to build a more human-centric and open Internet, faced a €26 million funding cut in 2024 that threatened its end by 2027. In response, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and consortium partners successfully secured a new funding umbrella to continue the NGI's work. This episode of the Software Freedom Podcast discusses the importance of such long-term funding in combating the monopolisation of the Internet.

SFP 50: Policy and EU: How NGI wants to save the Internet and what's next? We reached our 50th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast Thank you Without the support of our listeners we would not have made it this far <3. In this episode Bonnie talks with Gabriel Ku Wei Bin, from the FSFE's legal team about how the European Next Generation Internet initiative works to move us in the right direction towards a human-centric web. The Next Generation Internet NGI initiative aims to build a more resilient, trustworthy and open Internet. Through the NGI umbrella, the European Union provides financial support to Free Software projects covering all layers of the Internet, to improve user experience of the Internet. The FSFE team provides support to NGI0 grantee projects on legal and licensing issues, as well as helping them to become REUSE compliant. In 2024 a funding cut amounting to almost €26 million was announced, which marked the end of the NGI initiative by 2027. The loss of this funding affects the Free Software ecosystem and its ability to steadily build important foundational technologies from the ground up. The Free Software Foundation Europe stepped up, with the support of hundreds of people, to try to safeguard this funding, and managed together with our consortium partners to find a new funding umbrella to continue the work that was done under the NGI Initiative. But why is funding like this needed in the first place? And what will be happening next? In this episode, Gabriel and Bonnie talk about the reasons behind NGI and how important it is more than ever to step up against the monopolisation of the Internet as we know it. The FSFE's policy work is an important part of our aim to safeguard Software Freedom. You can support our work by donating today Show notes - Support our work for Free Software - Interoperability regulation in the EU: Opening iOS and Android for Free Software - SFP 26: Policy and EU: the need of long-term funding and the NGI case - EU consultation confirms demand: long-term funding for Free Software is needed - Next Generation Internet Zero FSFE's activity - Next Generation Internet Zero official webpage - NLnet Foundation - The FSFE is helping to build an “Internet of Humans” - EC Public consultation: Digital economy and society - Evgeny Morozov, "The Net Delusion: the Dark Side of Internet Freedom" - The Matrix movie Wikipedia - Fred Rogers Wikipedia - Stay up-to-date and join our Newsletter We are happy to receive your feedback on the Software Freedom Podcast and especially on the transcript of the episode. Please, email us to: podcast@fsfe.org. If you liked this episode and want to support our continuous work for software freedom, please help us with a donation.