10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100

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.Support FSFE: https://my.fsfe.org/support

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

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