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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falun Gong | 6/19 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:19:45.563084+00:00 | kb-cron |
The Epoch Media Group, along with Shen Yun, a dance troupe known for its ubiquitous advertising and unsettling performances, make up the outreach effort of Falun Gong, a relatively new spiritual practice that combines ancient Chinese meditative exercises, mysticism and often ultraconservative cultural worldviews. Falun Gong's founder has referred to Epoch Media Group as "our media", and the group's practice heavily informs The Epoch Times' coverage, according to former employees who spoke with NBC News. The Epoch Times, digital production company NTD and the heavily advertised dance troupe Shen Yun make up the nonprofit network that Li calls "our media". Financial documents paint a complicated picture of more than a dozen technically separate organizations that appear to share missions, money and executives. Though the source of their revenue is unclear, the most recent financial records from each organization paint a picture of an overall business thriving in the Trump era. According to scholar James R. Lewis writing in 2018, Falun Gong adherents have attempted to control English Wikipedia articles covering the group and articles related to it. Lewis highlights Falun Gong's extensive internet presence, and how editors who have to date contributed to English Wikipedia entries associated with Falun Gong to the point where "Falun Gong followers and/or sympathizers de facto control the relevant pages on Wikipedia", and how this is particularly important for Falun Gong as an organization due to the search engine optimization results of these entries, and how the entries can influence other media entities. Lewis notes also how this fits in as part of Falun Gong's general media strategy, such as Falun Gong media like The Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty, Sound of Hope Radio, and, as Lewis discusses, the Rachlin media group. Lewis reports that the Rachlin media group is the Falun Gong's de facto PR firm operated by Gail Rachlin, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Centre. Lewis says that Amnesty International does not independently verify its reports from Falun Gong groups, accepting material directly from Falun Gong organizations as fact. According to Lewis, "[Falun Gong] has thus been able to influence other media via its presence on the web, through its direct press releases, and through its own media."
== Internet circumvention software == In the early 2000s, Falun Gong adherents in the United States developed Ultrasurf and Freegate, freeware intended to circumvent Chinese government internet censorship. According to NPR:
Adherents of Falun Gong first developed Ultrasurf nearly two decades ago to get around censors in China and elsewhere. Early on, Ultrasurf seemed a highly promising tool in aiding activists and journalists to talk securely online. It earlier received development money from the State Department and the predecessor agency to USAGM. A Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society report on the circumvention landscape in 2007 found Ultrasurf's performance to be "the best of any tool tested in filtering countries, the only tool to display okay speed for both image heavy and simple, text oriented sites." A Wired article described Ultrasurf as "one of the most important free-speech tools on the Internet, used by millions from China to Saudi Arabia." Beyond China, Freegate gained popularity among Iranian protesters soon after its Farsi version was introduced in July 2008. During the Green Movement protests surrounding the 2009 election, its servers were overwhelmed by Iranian Internet users. In 2010, the United States Department of State under the Obama administration offered a $1.5 million grant to the Global Internet Freedom Consortium founded by Falun Gong adherents that developed Ultrasurf and Freegate, drawing opposition from the Chinese government. A 2011 Center for a New American Security report recognized the need for the US government to fund high-performing technologies like Ultrasurf and Freegate, despite the stress it might cause on the U.S.-China relationship, but recommended the US government diversify the technologies it funds. In recent years, Ultrasurf has been a major point of contention in large part because it is not open source, meaning that it cannot be reviewed by outside engineers for vulnerabilities and back doors. Additionally, as reported by The Verge, since the 2000s, the software has drawn criticism "for its content filtering (which blocks pornography) and its ability to surveil user traffic, which is often impossible by design in competing tools". Although it receives public funding, both its creators and owners have rejected attempts at allowing outside parties to review its effectiveness and utility. A 2020 audit by the U.S. State Department concluded that "censoring Ultrasurf nation-wide would have been trivial for a moderate-budget adversary". After conservative documentary filmmaker Michael Pack was appointed CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) during the Trump administration in 2020, Pack tied up $19 million in federal funds from other projects for the Ultrasurf project. Numerous other projects, including other secure communication projects, lost funding during this period. Ultrasoft eventually received $249,000 of the allotted funds. Once receiving funding, only "four people abroad used it to access Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, a key purpose for its subsidy" during December 2020 and January 2021. Two days before U.S. President Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration, Pack appointed a columnist from the Epoch Times to the board of directors for the networks his agency oversaw. This columnist had claimed the January 6 insurrection was a "false flag operation". During his eight months in office, Pack regularly appeared in the Epoch Times, where he also discussed Ultrasurf. As of 2020, Pack, along with other USAGM officials he did not fire during his time there, faced a criminal inquiry in response to whistleblower allegations that the "concerted effort to divert funds to the Falun Gong software Ultrasurf was a criminal conspiracy".
== Organization ==