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* [http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/11/the_day_we_fight_back_activism The Day We Fight Back: Activism Sweeps the Internet with Global Action Against Mass Surveillance] – video by ''[[Democracy Now!]]''
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/11/the_day_we_fight_back_activism The Day We Fight Back: Activism Sweeps the Internet with Global Action Against Mass Surveillance] – video by ''[[Democracy Now!]]''
* [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453028,00.asp The Day We Fight Back: What You Need to Know] ''[[PC World]]''
* [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453028,00.asp The Day We Fight Back: What You Need to Know] ''[[PC World]]''
* [http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/02/11/day-fight-back-against-nsa-spying-and-big-government-big-secret/ The day we fight back against NSA spying and big government's big secret] op-ed by US Rep. [[Ted Poe]]
* [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/11/1276704/-The-Day-We-Fight-Back-Easy-Things-You-Can-Do-To-Protest-Mass-Surveillance The Day We Fight Back: Easy Things You Can Do To Protest Mass Surveillance] by [[Jesselyn Radack]]
* [http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/nsa-surveillanceprivacycivilliberties.html Resisting the surveillance state of mind] op-ed by [[Norman Solomon]]


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Revision as of 23:10, 11 February 2014

The Day We Fight Back
Part of Aftermath of the global surveillance disclosure
The banner of The Day We Fight Back
DateFebruary 11, 2014
Location
Online plus physical protests in various locals
Caused bySnowden leaks, Global surveillance
Goals See also: Proposed reforms of mass surveillance by the United States
MethodsWebsite banners and various actions
Lead figures

Planning:

Along with: Demand Progress, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Free Press organization, Reddit, Mozilla, and Boing Boing.

Notable Participants:

Motto: The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance
thedaywefightback.org

The Day We Fight Back (or "Don't Spy on Us" in the UK[2]) is an ongoing global protest against mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA),[3][4][5] the UK GCHQ,[2] and the other Five Eyes partners involved in global surveillance.[6] The "digital protest" took place on February 11, 2014 with more than 6,000 participating websites[7] [3][4][5] 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.”[8] Organizers hoped lawmakers would be made aware "that there's going to be ongoing public pressure until these reforms are instituted."[9]

The protest was announced on January 10, 2014[4] by the Internet activism group Demand Progress.[10] Other early organizers included digital rights groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 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 site, the protest will "ask legislators to oppose the FISA Improvements Act, support the USA Freedom Act, and enact protections for non-Americans."[11][12][13]

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."[14]

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".[15]

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.”[16] 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".[8]

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.[17] 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.[18]

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.[19]

Reddit announcement

Comparing the opposition to surveillance to the previous defeat of SOPA, in which Demand Progress and Aaron Swartz had been deeply involved, the organizers called for a month of activities culminating in the February 11 "day of action"[20][21] in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" discussion held on January 10, several organizers announced the action and fielded user 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, developer of The Day we Fight Back's website and several other activist projects. Doctorow and Eckersley indicated they had been close friends of Swartz.

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.[22][23]

The US Department of Justice charged Aaron Swartz with multiple felonies. He faced a potential penalty of 35 years confinement in a federal penitentiary.[24] 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. [25][26] 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.[27][28][29]

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][30][31][32]

Swartz's brother, Noah Swartz, is "actively organizing" The Day We Fight Back.[19]

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.[33][34]

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.[18] The film follows director Brian Knappenberger's recent op-ed documentary for the New York Times called "Why Care About the NSA?".[35]

Related events

Various actions were scheduled to coincide with the Internet protest, including demonstrations in 15 countries.[36] Events included:

  • Bitbureauet, a Denmark-based think-tank, announced plans for a protest outside the US embassy in Copenhagen, using the slogan "tag internettet tilbage" ('take back the internet').[37][25][38]
  • Restore the Fourth, an American organization, planned a protest outside the AT&T Building in San Francisco that houses Room 641A, the facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency. According to the organization, the protest will feature a speech by Mark Klein, the AT&T technician who publicly exposed the facility in 2006.[39][40][41][25] The EFF has announced plans for an event in Bluffdale, Utah, near the Utah Data Center.[42] The Rhode Island Coalition to Defend Human and Civil Rights and Rhode Island MoveOn.org announced a protest outside federal courthouse in Providence.[43]
  • KBOO, an Oregon-based listener-funded radio station, scheduled a day of special programming related to Internet activism.[47]
  • In Manila, protestors rallied outside the Supreme Court against the surveillance-related "Philippines 2012 Cybercrime Prevention Act".[48][49]

Supporters

Supporting the digital protest was a "broad coalition of activist groups, companies, and online platforms".[51] The Guardian observed that supporters included unlikely bedfellows, citing backing from both American Civil Liberties Union and the "very conservative" FreedomWorks.[52] Political parties supporting the protest include include the US National Libertarian Party, the Australian Greens, the Pirate Party of Sweden, and Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty.[53][54][55][56][53][54][55] Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) has also endorsed the protest.[57]

Groups supporting The Day We Fight Back include the EFF, the ACLU, Freedomworks,[56] Greenpeace, Demand Progress, Human Rights Watch, the Government Accountability Project,[58] Restore the Fourth, the Free Software Foundation, and Amnesty International.[56] Websites supporting the protest included Reddit,[59] Tumblr,[59] Wikia, Mozilla, Facebook, and Google.[60][61]

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.[62] [63] The Huffington Post released images of various memes meant to be posted to sites like Facebook and Twitter as part of the event.[64] Tens of thousands of individuals pledged to make calls and Internet posts supporting surveillance reform.[16]

The "most prominent addition" to the protest was the "Reform Government Surveillance coalition",[65] which includes AOL, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yahoo. It was not clear how the sites would participate.[66] Matt Simons, director of social and economic justice at ThoughtWorks, said the coalition's support of the protest "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.[67]

Reaction

By mid-day, the Telegraph reported that the banner had succeeded in garnering 87,320 signatures for an international petition, and 19,372 sent to members of Congress.[7]

On Twitter, the hashtag "StopTheNSA" became a 'trending' topic.[68] 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.[69]

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."[70]

Notable participants

3

See also

References

  1. ^ http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2014/02/its-time-to-reform-government.html
  2. ^ a b Solon, Olivia (February 11, 2014). "Don't Spy On Us: it's time to hold politicians to account for mass surveillance". Wired UK. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d Gross, Grant (January 10, 2014). "Advocacy groups plan day of protest against NSA surveillance". PC World. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d e Rucke, Katie (January 14, 2014). "Activists Announce Day To 'Fight Back' Against NSA". MintPress News. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Albanesius, Chloe. "The Day We Fight Back: What You Need to Know". PCMag. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Sparkes, Matthew. "Reddit and Tumblr among websites protesting NSA surveillance". Telegraph. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  8. ^ a b 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. Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/197859-thousands-of-sites-to-protest-nsa-spying#ixzz2sxBGnYy9 Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook". The Hill. The Hill. Retrieved February 10, 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  9. ^ Siner, Emily. "The Internet Flexes Political Muscle With Anti-NSA Protest". NPR. PBS. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  10. ^ Yakowicz, Will (February 3, 2014). "Internet Activists Are Rallying Businesses to Protest NSA Spying". Inc.com.
  11. ^ "February 11th 2014". The Day We Fight Back. February 6, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
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  13. ^ "February 11 Will Be A Bad Day For The NSA But A Good Day For Freedom". Carbonated.TV. January 14, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  14. ^ Wagstaff, Keith. "Reddit, Tumblr and More Protest NSA With 'Day We Fight Back'". NBC News. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  15. ^ Gilmore, Dan. "Get ready: the day we fight back against mass surveillance is coming". Guardian. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  16. ^ a b Gross, Grant. "More than 4,000 groups sign up to protest the NSA". PCWorld. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ a b Pengelly, Martin (January 11, 2014). "Hacking of MIT website marks first anniversary of Aaron Swartz's death". The Guardian. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  19. ^ a b Goodman, Amy (January 26, 2014). "Aaron Swartz: The life we lost and the day we fight back". Athens News.
  20. ^ 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.com.
  21. ^ Wolfgang, Ben. "Obama faces 'day of action' to protest NSA reforms". Washington Times. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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....").
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ a b c "Aaron Swartz, internet freedom activist, dies aged 26". BBC News. January 13, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2013. Cite error: The named reference "autogenerated1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  26. ^ "Aaron Swartz, Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist, Is Dead at 26". Time. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  27. ^ Lessig, Lawrence (January 12, 2013). "Prosecutor as bully". Lessig Blog, v2. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ Landry, Lauren (January 11, 2014). "Anonymous Hacks MIT Website in Memory of Aaron Swartz, Announces 'The Day We Fight Back'". BostInno. Streetwise Media.
  30. ^ 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.
  31. ^ 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.
  32. ^ "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.
  33. ^ 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.
  34. ^ "Privacy advocates announce day of protest against NSA spying". Help Net Security. January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  35. ^ Knappenberger, Brian (November 25, 2013). "'Why Care About the N.S.A.?". The New York Times. The Opinion Pages. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  36. ^ Gabbatt, Adam. "Protesters rally for 'the day we fight back' against mass surveillance". Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  37. ^ "Tag internettet tilbage! 11. februar 2014 - Demonstration mod masseovervågning". Taginternettettilbage.nu. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  38. ^ "Pressemeddelelse : 31 January 2014" (PDF). Taginternettettilbage.nu. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  39. ^ "The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance | Restore The Fourth San Francisco Bay Area". Restorethefourthsf.com. November 23, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
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  42. ^ "A Day To Fight Back | R Street Institute | Free Markets. Real Solutions". Rstreet.org. February 22, 1999. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  43. ^ http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/RI-groups-protest-federal-government-surveillance-5224024.php
  44. ^ "Stockholm: Demonstrera med oss på The Day We Fight Back « Piratpartiet Stockholm". Stockholm.piratpartiet.se. February 6, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  45. ^ https://cryptoparty.at/graz graz
  46. ^ "The Day We Fight Back". Sflc.in. February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  47. ^ "The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance | KBOO". Kboo.fm. January 31, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  48. ^ "Snapshot Of The World - Feb. 10-17 - All News Is Global". Worldcrunch.com. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  49. ^ "ZUMA Pictures Of The Day: News, Sports, Celeb images and more". Thepicturesoftheday.com. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
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  56. ^ a b c d e f Paul Wagenseil. "Facebook Supporting 'Day We Fight Back' Protest – Tom's Guide". Tomsguide.com. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  57. ^ http://www.ibtimes.com/day-we-fight-back-congress-battered-emails-phone-calls-internet-protest-nsa-spying-1554614
  58. ^ http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/48-2014/3183-today-the-day-we-fight-back-goes-global
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  61. ^ http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2014/02/its-time-to-reform-government.html
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  66. ^ Voltz, Dustin. "Coalition of Google, Facebook, and Other Tech Giants Join Mass NSA Protest". National Journal. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  67. ^ Robertson, Adi (February 10, 2014). "The Day We Fight Back: can an internet protest stop the NSA?*". The Verge.
  68. ^ LaCapria, Kim. "#StopTheNSA Trends On Twitter Thanks to The Day We Fight Back Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/day-fight-back-stopthensa-trends-twitter-0774631#XCpFeya70trPoAE9.99". B2C. Retrieved February 11, 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  69. ^ Kopan, Tal. "#StopTheNSA lights up Twitter". Politico. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  70. ^ Sanders, Bernie. "Tweet". Twitter. Retrieved February 11, 2014.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Day_We_Fight_Back&oldid=595051852"