The Day We Fight Back

The Day We Fight Back
Part of Aftermath of the global surveillance disclosure

The banner of The Day We Fight Back
Date February 11, 2014
Location Online plus physical protests in various locals
Causes Snowden leaks, Global surveillance
Goals
Methods Website banners and various actions
Result
  • 90,474 calls and 188,198 emails to Congress.
  • Primary goal of passage of the USA Freedom Act incomplete.
Lead figures
Motto: The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance
thedaywefightback.org

The Day We Fight Back was a one-day global protest against mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA),[3][4][5] the UK GCHQ,[6][7][8] and the other Five Eyes partners involved in global surveillance.[7] The "digital protest" took place on February 11, 2014 with more than 6,000 participating websites,[3][4][5][9] which primarily took the form of webpage banner-advertisements that read, "Dear Internet, we're sick of complaining about the NSA. We want new laws that curtail online surveillance. Today we fight back."[10] Organizers hoped lawmakers would be made aware "that there's going to be ongoing public pressure until these reforms are instituted."[11]

The protest was announced on January 10, 2014, by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).[4] Other early organizers included digital rights groups such as Fight for the Future, and Free Press, as well as social media website Reddit, Firefox producer Mozilla, collaborative blogging website Boing Boing, and populist advocacy group '"The Other 98%".[3][4][5]

According to the official website, the protest asked U.S. "legislators to oppose the FISA Improvements Act, support the USA Freedom Act, and enact protections for non-Americans."[12][13] Protest organizers said roughly 96,000 calls were placed to members of Congress and 555,000 "pro-privacy emails" were sent via the website.[14]

Purpose

The Day We Fight Back was intended as a day of "worldwide solidarity" in protest against NSA surveillance. It was at once an action against censorship and surveillance, and a commemoration of late "open-Internet activist" Aaron Swartz.[5] In the US, a main goal of the protest was to encourage passage of the USA Freedom Act, a bill that seeks to reign in telephone data collection. Additionally, the banner urged people to call Congress and voice opposition to the FISA Improvements Act, which the ACLU called "a dream come true for the NSA" that would "codify the NSA's unconstitutional call-records program and allow bulk collection of location data from mobile phone users."[15]

Outside the US, the goal was similar. A Guardian op-ed described the activists' objective globally as "to push authorities toward policies favoring liberty and privacy".[16]

Organizers posted to their website: "Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action.Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance. Together, if we persist, we will win this fight."[17] Rainey Reitman, director of activism at the EFF, said, "The idea is to really harness the outrage of the Internet community in speaking out in one big voice on Feb. 11." The protest comes a month after President Obama made a surveillance reform speech introducing his proposed changes to the collection of US citizens' data. Critics said the reformations wouldn't be "nearly enough".g[10]

Organizers compared the February protest with the SOPA protest two years prior, saying, "Today we face a different threat, one that undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society". The threats were 'International counterparts like Five Eyes and Tempora, mass surveillance, and programs such as PRISM, Canada's CSEC airport monitoring activities'.[7]

Background

Promotion

The Day We Fight Back was promoted in a trailer for an upcoming documentary about Aaron Swartz, currently titled The Internet's Own Boy.[18] In the clip, the late activist comments on mass surveillance: "It is shocking to think that the accountability is so lax that they don't even have sort of basic statistics about how big the spying programme is. If the answer is, 'Oh, we're spying on so many people we can't possibly even count them,' then that's an awful lot of people." Five months after Swartz's death, the scale of a vast global surveillance program would be revealed in great detail through the release of top-secret NSA documents by Edward Snowden.[19]

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! promoted The Day We Fight Back in an opinion article in the Athens News, noting Swartz's role in the digital rights movement calling for "another fight for the freedom of the Internet" without him.[20]

Reddit "Ask Me Anything"

Comparing the opposition to surveillance with the previous defeat of SOPA, in which Demand Progress and Aaron Swartz had been deeply involved, the organizers took to Reddit and called for a month of activities culminating in the February 11 "day of action"[21][22] In an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) discussion held on January 10, several organizers announced the action and fielded user questions, saying their purpose was to answer questions "about Aaron and a protest we're organizing on 02/11 in his honor". Those participating were Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing; Brian Knappenberger, who made the films The Internet's Own Boy, a documentary about Aaron Swartz, and We Are Legion, a film about the hacker group "Anonymous"; David Segal, co-founder of Demand Progress; Peter Eckersley of EFF; and Sina Khanifar, website developer for "The Day We Fight Back" and several other activist projects. Doctorow and Eckersley indicated they had been close friends of Swartz.

On February 11, organizers again held an AMA[23] and issued the following statement:

Two years ago, reddit and its users joined in fighting back against dangerous Internet censorship legislation during the SOPA protests. You blacked out your websites and started hundreds of creative campaigns to defeat a piece of legislation that threatened freedom on the Internet.
In the last 6 months we've seen that government agencies, namely the NSA and GCHQ and others, have broken laws and twisted legal interpretations to create an infrastructure of mass surveillance of all of us online. This creates a dark form of censorship as people become afraid to speak freely -- and it's one that undermines our security and our right to privacy as well. As users of the Internet, we have a responsibility to defend its freedom.[24]

Inspiration from Aaron Swartz

Main article: Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was an American activist who founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Swartz, a fellow at Harvard, was arrested by MIT police after systematically downloading academic journal articles from JSTOR.[25][26]

The US Department of Justice charged Aaron Swartz with multiple felonies. He faced a potential penalty of 35 years confinement in a federal penitentiary.[27] On January 11, 2013, two days after the prosecution denied his lawyer's second offer of a plea bargain, Swartz was found dead, having hanged himself. [28][29] Many commentators viewed the prosecution, which would have imposed a devastating prison term for accessing information in bulk rather than one article at a time, as 'bullying' that ultimately lead to Swartz's death.[30][31][32]

February 11, 2014, the planned day of protest, falls one month after the first year anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz.[3][4][5][33][34][35]

Swartz's brother, Noah Swartz, is "actively organizing" The Day We Fight Back.[20]

David Segal said in a statement,

Today the greatest threat to a free Internet, and broader free society, is the National Security Agency's mass spying regime. If Aaron were alive he'd be on the front lines, fighting back against these practices that undermine our ability to engage with each other as genuinely free human beings.[36][37]

In the clip, Swartz comments on mass surveillance,

It is shocking to think that the accountability is so lax that they don't even have sort of basic statistics about how big the spying programme is. If the answer is, 'Oh, we're spying on so many people we can't possibly even count them,' then that's an awful lot of people." Five months after Swartz's death, the scale of a vast global surveillance program would be revealed in great detail through the release of top-secret NSA documents by Edward Snowden.[19] The film follows director Brian Knappenberger's recent op-ed documentary for The New York Times titled "Why Care About the NSA?"[38]

"Your world delivered ... to the NSA. On AT&T building in SF where whistleblower Mark Klein saw the NSA spying room." Tweeted[39] by Kurt Opsohl, attorney with the EFF; from "The Day We Fight Back" protest in San Francisco, February 11, 2014

Related demonstrations were scheduled in 15 countries.[40] Activities to support the protest took place "from Argentina to Uganda, from Colombia to the Philippines".[41] Events included:

Supporters

Supporting the digital protest was a "broad coalition of activist groups, companies, and online platforms".[57] The Guardian observed that supporters included unlikely bedfellows, citing backing from both American Civil Liberties Union and the "very conservative" FreedomWorks.[58] Political parties supporting the protest included the US National Libertarian Party, the Australian Greens, the Pirate Party of Sweden, and Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty.[59][60][61][62] Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) has also endorsed the protest.[63]

The "most prominent addition" to the protest was the "Reform Government Surveillance" coalition,[64] which includes AOL, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yahoo. It was not initially clear how the sites would participate.[65] The group sent a letter to President Obama on November 11 and "urged changes that would include a government agreement not to collect bulk data from Internet communications."[66] On the same day, Google announced its support for the USA Freedom Act, saying "Google recognizes the very real threats that the U.S. and other countries face, but we strongly believe that government surveillance programs should operate under a legal framework that is rule-bound, narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight."[67] Matt Simons, director of social and economic justice at ThoughtWorks, nevertheless said the coalition's support of The Day We Fight Back "rings a little hollow" because of the late date of its announcement and its member's past disclosure of their customers' data to the NSA.[68]

Groups supporting The Day We Fight Back include the EFF, the ACLU, Freedomworks,[62] Greenpeace, Demand Progress, Human Rights Watch, the Government Accountability Project,[69] Restore the Fourth, the Free Software Foundation, and Amnesty International.[62] Websites supporting the protest included Reddit,[70] Tumblr,[70] Wikia, Mozilla, Facebook, and Google.[2][71]

By February 11, more than 6,000 websites and organizations had signed up to show support by featuring The Day We a Fight Back banner for 24 hours.[72][73] The Huffington Post released images of various memes meant to be posted to sites like Facebook and Twitter as part of the event.[74] Tens of thousands of individuals pledged to make calls and Internet posts supporting surveillance reform.[17]

Reaction

By mid-day, organizers said supporters had sent 104,000 emails and made nearly 50,000 calls to Congress.[66]

On Twitter, the hashtag "StopTheNSA" became a 'trending' topic.[75] Joining tech companies and public figures, lawmakers voiced support using the online platform, including Tom Udall, Jerry Nadler, Rick Larsen, Ron Wyden, Raul M. Grijalva, Mike Honda, Mark Pocan, Alan Grayson, and Rand Paul.[76]

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) posted:

"What I worry about is kids growing up in a society where they say 'if I send this email or if I visit this website, then somebody may think I'm a terrorist. I'm not going to talk about this issue, I'm not going to read this book, I'm not going to explore this idea.' I don't want anyone thinking about that. It upsets me very much and is not the kind of free society I think we should be living in."[77]

As February 11 drew to a close, The New York Times posted a blog titled "The Day the Internet Didn't Fight Back," reporting that "the protest on Tuesday barely registered. Wikipedia did not participate. Reddit ... added an inconspicuous banner to its homepage. Sites like Tumblr, Mozilla and DuckDuckGo, which were listed as organizers, did not include the banner on their homepages. The eight major technology companies—Google, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, Apple, Twitter, Yahoo and LinkedIn ... only participated Tuesday insofar as having a joint website flash the protest banner."[78]

Notable participants

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Demonstrations and protests relating to the Internet.

References

  1. ↑ EFF (February 12, 2014). "Major thanks to our friends @sinak, @demandprogress, and @neutralthoughts [(Thomas Davis)]. #TheDayWeFightBack wouldn't have been possible without them". Twitter. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  2. 1 2 http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2014/02/its-time-to-reform-government.html
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gross, Grant (January 10, 2014). "Advocacy groups plan day of protest against NSA surveillance". PC World. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Rucke, Katie (January 14, 2014). "Activists Announce Day To 'Fight Back' Against NSA". MintPress News. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Brown, Eric (January 14, 2014). "Reddit, Mozilla And Others To Protest NSA Spying, Honor Aaron Swartz On 'The Day We Fight Back'". International Business Times. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  6. ↑ Solon, Olivia (2014-02-11). "Don't Spy On Us: it's time to hold politicians to account for mass surveillance". Wired UK. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  7. 1 2 3 Rickwood, Lee. "Protesting mass surveillance: Canada called to join The Day We Fight Back". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Albanesius, Chloe. "The Day We Fight Back: What You Need to Know". PC Magazine. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  9. 1 2 Sparkes, Matthew (February 11, 2014). "Reddit and Tumblr among websites protesting NSA surveillance". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  10. 1 2 Hattem, Julian. ""The idea is to really harness the outrage of the Internet community in speaking out in one big voice on Feb. 11," said Rainey Reitman, the director of activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation". The Hill. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  11. ↑ Siner, Emily. "The Internet Flexes Political Muscle With Anti-NSA Protest". NPR. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  12. ↑ "Today, February 11th, 2014 is The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance". Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  13. ↑ "Data Spying: Feb. 11 To Become "The Day We Fight Back"". Valuewalk.com. 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  14. ↑ Damon, Poeter. "The Day We Fight Back Generates Nearly 100K Calls To Congress". PC Magazine. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  15. ↑ Wagstaff, Keith. "Reddit, Tumblr and More Protest NSA With 'Day We Fight Back'". NBC News. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  16. ↑ Gilmore, Dan. "Get ready: the day we fight back against mass surveillance is coming". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  17. 1 2 Gross, Grant. "More than 4,000 groups sign up to protest the NSA". PCWorld. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  18. ↑ Zelman, Joanna (January 11, 2014). "Aaron Swartz Documentary Clip Reveals Activist's Thoughts On NSA, Pushes Day Of Action". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  19. 1 2 Pengelly, Martin (January 11, 2014). "Hacking of MIT website marks first anniversary of Aaron Swartz's death". The Guardian. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  20. 1 2 Goodman, Amy (January 26, 2014). "Aaron Swartz: The life we lost and the day we fight back". Athens News.
  21. ↑ Doctorow, Cory; Knappenberger, Brian; Eckersley, Peter; Segal, David (January 10, 2014). "Aaron Swartz passed away a year ago tomorrow. We are Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, Peter Eckersley (EFF), and David Segal (Demand Progress) here to talk about Aaron and a protest we're organizing on 02/11 in his honor. Ask us anything". Reddit.
  22. ↑ Wolfgang, Ben. "Obama faces 'day of action' to protest NSA reforms". The Washington Times. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  23. ↑ Stuckey, Daniel. "How an Anti-NSA Campaign Took Over the Internet". Motherboard. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  24. ↑ Segal, David. "We are "The Day We Fight Back" Organizers, Ask Us Anything". Reddit.
  25. ↑ Gerstein, Josh (July 22, 2011). "MIT also pressing charges against hacking suspect". Politico. [Swartz's] alleged use of MIT facilities and Web connections to access the JSTOR database ... resulted in two state felony charges for breaking into a 'depository' and breaking & entering in the daytime, according to local prosecutors.
  26. ↑ Commonwealth v. Swartz, 11-52CR73 & 11-52CR75, MIT Police Incident Report 11-351 (Mass. Dist. Ct. nolle prosequi Dec. 16, 2011) (“Captain [A.P.] and Special Agent Pickett were able to apprehend the suspect at 24 Lee Street.... He was arrested for two counts of Breaking and Entering in the daytime with the intent to commit a felony....”).
  27. ↑ US Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts (July 19, 2011). "Alleged Hacker Charged With Stealing Over Four Million Documents from MIT Network" (Press release). Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  28. ↑ "Aaron Swartz, internet freedom activist, dies aged 26". BBC News. January 13, 2013. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
  29. ↑ "Aaron Swartz, Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist, Is Dead at 26". Time. January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  30. ↑ Lessig, Lawrence (January 12, 2013). "Prosecutor as bully". Lessig Blog, v2. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  31. ↑ Schwartz, John (January 12, 2013). "Internet Activist, a Creator of RSS, Is Dead at 26, Apparently a Suicide". The New York Times. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  32. ↑ Landry, Lauren (January 11, 2014). "Anonymous Hacks MIT Website in Memory of Aaron Swartz, Announces 'The Day We Fight Back'". BostInno.
  33. ↑ MacFarquhar, Larissa (March 11, 2013). "Requiem for a dream: The tragedy of Aaron Swartz". The New Yorker. [Swartz] wrote a script that instructed his computer to download articles continuously, something that was forbidden by JSTOR's terms of service....  He spoofed the computer's address....  This happened several times.  MIT traced the requests to his laptop, which he had hidden in an unlocked closet.
  34. ↑ Peters, Justin (February 7, 2013). "The Idealist: Aaron Swartz wanted to save the world. Why couldn't he save himself?". Slate. p. 6. The superseding indictment ... claimed that Swartz had 'contrived to break into a restricted-access wiring closet at MIT.'  But the closet door had been unlocked—and remained unlocked even after the university and authorities were aware that someone had been in there trying to access the school's network.
  35. ↑ "Co-founder of Reddit Aaron Swartz found dead". CBS News. January 12, 2013. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  36. ↑ Pangburn, D.J. (January 13, 2014). "Internet Activists Look Back at Aaron Swartz's Life as 'The Day We Fight Back' Approaches". Vice. Motherboard. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  37. ↑ "Privacy advocates announce day of protest against NSA spying". Help Net Security. January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  38. ↑ Knappenberger, Brian (November 25, 2013). "'Why Care About the N.S.A.?". The New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  39. ↑ Opsohl, Kurt. "Tweet". Twitter. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  40. ↑ Gabbatt, Adam. "Protesters rally for 'the day we fight back' against mass surveillance". Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  41. ↑ O'Brian, Danny. "Today Is the Day the Internet Fights Back to Protect Privacy". Gizmodo.
  42. 1 2 "A List of Events Happening on The Day We Fight Back". The Day We Fight Back. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  43. ↑ "Tag internettet tilbage! 11. februar 2014 - Demonstration mod masseovervågning". Taginternettettilbage.nu. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  44. ↑ "Pressemeddelelse : 31 January 2014" (PDF). Taginternettettilbage.nu. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  45. ↑ "The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance". Restore The Fourth San Francisco Bay Area. 2013-11-23. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  46. ↑ "AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence". Wired. May 17, 2006. Retrieved February 27, 2009.
  47. ↑ Bamford, James (15 March 2012). "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)". Wired (magazine). Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  48. ↑ "A Day To Fight Back | R Street Institute | Free Markets. Real Solutions". Rstreet.org. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  49. ↑ http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/RI-groups-protest-federal-government-surveillance-5224024.php
  50. ↑ "Stockholm: Demonstrera med oss på The Day We Fight Back". Piratpartiet Stockholm. 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  51. ↑ https://cryptoparty.at/graz graz
  52. ↑ "The Day We Fight Back". Sflc.in. 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  53. ↑ "The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance". KBOO. 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  54. ↑ "Snapshot Of The World - Feb. 10-17 - All News Is Global". Worldcrunch.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  55. ↑ "ZUMA Pictures Of The Day: News, Sports, Celeb images and more". Thepicturesoftheday.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  56. ↑ Solon, Olivia. "Don't Spy On Us: It's time to hold politicians to account for mass surveillance (Wired UK)". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  57. ↑ Miles Mogulescu (February 10, 2014). "It Can Happen Again: Covert Government Programs to Discredit Martin Luther King and Other Dissenters Show Dangers of NSA". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  58. ↑ Dan Gillmor (2007-09-28). "Get ready: the day we fight back against mass surveillance is coming". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  59. ↑ Janney, Elizabeth. "Surveillance Protestors Take 'USA Freedom Act' Demonstration Online - Government - Bel Air, MD Patch". Belair.patch.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  60. ↑ "Mass protests planned for Tues over NSA surveillance". Fox News. 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  61. ↑ Cowan, Paris. "Greens go black to fight online surveillance - Security - Technology - News". Itnews.com.au. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  62. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Paul Wagenseil. "Facebook Supporting 'Day We Fight Back' Protest – Tom's Guide". Tomsguide.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  63. ↑ http://www.ibtimes.com/day-we-fight-back-congress-battered-emails-phone-calls-internet-protest-nsa-spying-1554614
  64. ↑ Swartz, Jon (December 9, 2013). "Tech giants team up in anti-snooping effort". USA Today. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  65. ↑ Voltz, Dustin. "Coalition of Google, Facebook, and Other Tech Giants Join Mass NSA Protest". National Journal. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  66. 1 2 "'The Day We Fight Back': Top Tech Firms Urge Changes to U.S. Spying". NBC News. AP. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  67. ↑ Sledge, Matt (February 11, 2014). "Google Backs Major Effort To Rein In NSA". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  68. ↑ Robertson, Adi (February 10, 2014). "The Day We Fight Back: can an internet protest stop the NSA?*". The Verge.
  69. ↑ http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/48-2014/3183-today-the-day-we-fight-back-goes-global
  70. 1 2 3 4 Wagstaff, Keith (2013-11-22). "Reddit, Tumblr and More Protest NSA With 'Day We Fight Back'". NBC News. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  71. ↑ http://mashable.com/2014/02/11/google-nsa-protests/
  72. ↑ "'The day we fight back': 6,000 websites protest surveillance, honor Aaron Swartz". RT. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  73. ↑ Rhodan, Maya. "NSA Surveillance Protest: 'The Day We Fight Back' | TIME.com". Swampland.time.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  74. ↑ Kleinman, Alexis (February 10, 2014). "Feb. 11 Is 'The Day We Fight Back' Against NSA Surveillance". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  75. ↑ LaCapria, Kim. "#StopTheNSA Trends On Twitter Thanks to The Day We Fight Back". B2C. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  76. ↑ Kopan, Tal. "#StopTheNSA lights up Twitter". Politico. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  77. ↑ Sanders, Bernie. "Tweet". Twitter. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  78. ↑ Perlroth, Nicole (February 11, 2014). "The Day the Internet Didn't Fight Back". The New York Times. Bits. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.