NDItech: In Bed with CISPA Sponsors, Seeks Hacktivists to Spread Corporate Fascism WorldwideSeeking to co-opt the tech community, NDItech opens doors and taxpayers pocketbooks to lure in talent. Image: A visual representation of the corporate-financier interests represented on the National Endowment for Democracys (NED) board of directors. NDItech falls under the umbrella of NED. While NED and NDItech pose as fighting for democracy, their corporate-financier interests lie poorly disguised just beneath the surface. Surely Goldman Sachs, Exxon, and the SOPA-sponsoring US Chamber of Commerce dont care about democracy or freedom on the Internet or elsewhere. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is one of many tentacles descending from the US State Department and its National Endowment for Democracy (NED) front. Despite NED and NDIs lofty mission statements about promoting democracy worldwide, the interests they represent are clearly those of the Fortune 500, including big-oil, retail, media, banking, and defense. This convergence of corporate-financier interests pervade the US government from the top, via corporate-funded policy think tanks that direct US policy at home and abroad, and out the bottom through corporate-chaired and funded NGOs that oversee the execution of this policy. William Galston: Brookings Institution (board of trustees can be found on page 35 here). Does Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Exxon, and the SOPA, ACTA, CISPA-sponsoring US Chamber of Commerce care about promoting democracy abroad? Or in expanding their corporate-financier interests under the guise of promoting democracy? Clearly the latter. The NEDs game is growing old, and many nations not only recognize the threat these insidious organizations pose through their stable of NGOs, but have now devised effective strategies to expose and purge them from within their borders. Russia has led the way, forcing NGOs to reveal openly their funding, and thus compromising their perceived legitimacy and neutrality a major problem for NED-funded fronts who attempt to portray themselves as independent, as election-monitor GOLOS attempted to do before Russian elections in 2011. Old Dog, New Trick? However, now, these interests are trying a new trick co-opting the planets tech community, both to augment its current activities, and to blunt the devastating blow the tech community has so far dealt big-business special interests. NEDs NDI has spun off NDItech DemocracyWorks which seeks to leverage emerging technology to manipulate and undermine targeted nations, just as NED has done through NGOs for years. NDItechs website states: NDI provides technical assistance to our democracy partners around the world including political parties, legislatures, civic groups, other organizations and individuals inmore than 70 countries. Our programs help these groups strengthen democratic institutions, safeguard elections, advance citizen engagement, and promote open and accountable government in their countries. The ICT team assists NDI partners and staff members around the world integrate technology tools into our democracy assistance programs in innovative and sustainable ways. A recent NDItech job listing stated: NDItech will in essence, be developing technology to bolster the many fake revolutions and armed violence the US State Department is busy orchestrating on behalf of the corporate-financier interests that direct US policy and both fund and chair NED, NDI, and now NDItech. NDItech in Bed with SOPA, ACTA, CISPA Sponsors Most ironically, when it was pointed out to NDItech that they were attempting to co-opt Internet activist Aaron Swartz work to help the very interests he fought against, they replied by stating: While CNET attempts to break down the Chambers support for SOPA into a left/right, Democrat vs. Republican issue, the reality is that the corporate-financier interests represented by the Chamber, drive the policy of both sides of the aisle which is why a Neo-Con chaired NED directly funds both the National Democratic Institute, which is indeed affiliated with the Democrat Party, and the International Republican Institute. Additionally, the NDI itself lists the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a joint project of the US Chamber of Commerce and NED, as one of its American Partners. It states: CIPEs board of directors consists almost entirely of US Chamber of Commerce members, including: NDIs shady partnership with CIPE aside, NDI itself hosts a myriad of compromised interests tied directly to big-business. Some select members include: Again, big-oil, big-banking, and big-defense. These are, without a doubt, the very people Aaron Swartz was resisting. These are the very interests across big business, that championed for SOPA (.pdf), ACTA, and CISPA. NDI is directly affiliated with people who literally and very openly championed for SOPA, ACTA, and CISPA. Their bald-faced lies claiming they were strongly opposed to all those pieces of legislation says much about how they view the intelligence of tech community they seek to compromise, co-opt, and employ to promote the very sort of encroachments on our civil liberties many in the tech community are fighting against. Dont Work for NDItech, Work for Yourself and Your Community It is the greatest victory for them to take enemies like Aaron Swartz and those who supported his activism, and turn them into tools for special interests. It is our greatest victory when we expose them, ostracize them, boycott the special-interests that subsidize their insidious work, and replace them permanently with local alternatives. The NDItech tweet searching for prospective employees stated: However, do yourself a favor and dont go build stuff for them. Build stuff for yourself and your community, because you and your community are the only ones who have your own best interests at heart. NDItech is a fraud, at face value, and disturbingly more so as you dig beneath the layers of corporate fascism and conflicts of interest. Learn the tricks they use to co-opt talented, well-intentioned, intelligent young people, and take a look across the rest of the tech landscape to see who else is playing a similar game. There is nothing they can offer or provide for you, that you and your community cannot do yourselves better, more honestly, and truly for your own best interests. Tony Cartaluccis articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at 