Between January and April 2025, the United States government implemented massive and immediate cuts to foreign aid spending. Our new report Targeted explores the global impact of those cuts on freedom of expression and the people working to defend it.
The cuts have weakened civil society’s capacity to hold government and corporate interests accountable, to provide access to accurate information, defend a free, open and global internet, protect journalists and human rights defenders, and protect freedom of expression and democracies around the world.
Based on quantitative analysis of affected programmes, 64 interviews with civil society representatives from around the world and hundreds of secondary sources, Targeted provides the first in-depth assessment of the scale and consequences of these cuts on free expression worldwide.
In total, ARTICLE 19 identified at least 283 free expression-related projects that were cut, the value of which was at least USD 1.7 billion.
Prior to the 2025 cuts, the US spent more on foreign aid than any other country. The reductions have had a disastrous, outsized impact across all areas of freedom of expression, in every region of the world: from strengthening civic space in authoritarian and democratically backsliding contexts to protecting journalists and human rights defenders, supporting independent media, defending internet freedom, and addressing the harmful impacts of disinformation.
Civil society organisations, especially in countries with limited local resources or where governments actively suppress independent voices, have depended on international support, such as that from the Unied States, to sustain their critical work. Without these resources, the capacity to defend freedom of expression and democracy is severely compromised, worsening the global crisis civil society is working to address.
Barbora Bukovská, ARTICLE 19’s Senior Director for Law and Policy, said:
“US cuts have done serious damage to global civil society. But this is a moment for other states and donors to step up. Support for civil society is a frontline investment in democracy, and while some donors are very active on that front, more has to be done. Freedom of expression does not survive on goodwill alone. It survives when governments and funders decide that the people who defend it are properly resourced.
“Civil society is our strongest defence against autocratic resurgence, democratic backsliding, and the spread of increasingly insular, nationalist policies. If other donors and states continue cutting or shrinking their own commitments, we will all see, very soon, the dismantling of the institutions that keep power in check. Now is the time to rebuild and to fund the work we all do to challenge power, protect speech, and keep civic space alive.”
Changes in US policy have been at least as damaging as the cuts themselves: the administration has shown open hostility to efforts to strengthen information integrity, imposed sanctions to retaliate against European attempts to make Big Tech accountable, attacked independent media, and targeted diversity and inclusion initiatives. US withdrawal from supporting a global, open, free internet has also ceded the ground for authoritarian governments to promote a more state-centric version of the internet. As the report shows, the US has not only left a massive hole in backing democracy and human rights globally – it is now a countervailing force against these efforts.
As civil society rebuilds and reconfigures in response to a perfect storm of escalating attacks on human rights and shrinking resources, our report brings together reflections from civil society representatives worldwide on what is needed to move forward. Among key priorities are the funding efforts to protect journalists and human rights defenders; supporting civil society to rebuild, reinvent, and adapt to the challenges we face; and ensuring that funding is driven by local needs, priorities, and solutions.