The Day We Fight Back Explained

See also: Proposed reforms of mass surveillance by the United States.

The Day We Fight Back
Partof:Reactions to global surveillance disclosures
Date:February 11, 2014
Place: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.
Leadfigures1:Planning:

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

Leadfigures2:Notable Participants:
Notes:Motto: The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance

The Day We Fight Back was a one-day global protest against mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA),[3] [4] the UK GCHQ,[5] [6] and the other Five Eyes partners involved in global surveillance. The "digital protest" took place on February 11, 2014 with more than 6,000 participating websites,[7] 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." Organizers hoped lawmakers would be made aware "that there's going to be ongoing public pressure until these reforms are instituted."[8]

The protest was announced on January 10, 2014, by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). 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%".

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."[9] [10] Protest organizers said roughly 96,000 calls were placed to members of Congress and 555,000 "pro-privacy emails" were sent via the website.[11]

Purpose

The Day We Fight Back was a day of "worldwide solidarity" in protest against global telecommunications surveillance, the state of which — organizers contended — was too broad in scope, too difficult for telecom corporations to comply with, and incompatible with "democratic governance." The event was said to be in honor of the late open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz. It was organized domestically in response to then-pending legislation, and internationally in response to the general attitudes and voting history of legislatures concerning relevant laws.

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." 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."[12]

In the United States, a main goal of the protest was to encourage passage of the USA Freedom Act, a bill that, among other purposes, sought to limit the NSA's collection of data transmitted through telephony. The legislation was signed into law on June 2, 2015. Additionally, the banner urged people to contact members of the United States Congress and express their opposition to the FISA Improvements Act — which the ACLU criticized, calling it "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."[13]

Organizers compared the February protest with the SOPA protest two years prior, stating that today "we face a different threat, one that undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society" — specifically, coordinated, international efforts, like the Five Eyes; and mass surveillance programs in general, such as the United States' PRISM, and the United Kingdom's Tempora. Organizers called upon Canadians to join the protest as well, highlighting their concerns regarding the then-recent disclosures of CSEC's airport activities — in which Canadian intelligence officers used an airport's public wifi system to track the activities of travelers connected to it, and continued to track them whenever they used other access points operated by the same provider.[14]

A Guardian op-ed in favor of the demonstration described the international objective as similar, but more abstract than its American counterpart — the goal being simply to promote a shift from policies in their current state "toward policies favoring liberty and privacy."[15]

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.[16] 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.[17]

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.[18]

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"[19] [20] 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[21] 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.[22]

Inspiration from Aaron Swartz

See main article: 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.[23] [24]

The US Department of Justice charged Aaron Swartz with multiple felonies. He faced a potential penalty of 35 years confinement in a federal penitentiary.[25] 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. [26] [27] Many commentators viewed the prosecution, which could 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.[28] [29] [30]

February 11, 2014, the planned day of protest, falls one month after the first anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz.[31] [32] [33]

Swartz's brother, Noah Swartz, was "actively organizing" The Day We Fight Back.

David Segal said in a statement,

In the clip, Swartz comments on mass surveillance,

Related events

Related demonstrations were scheduled in 15 countries.[34] Activities to support the protest took place "from Argentina to Uganda, from Colombia to the Philippines".[35] Events included:

Supporters

Supporting the digital protest was a "broad coalition of activist groups, companies, and online platforms".[50] The Guardian observed that supporters included unlikely bedfellows, citing backing from both American Civil Liberties Union and the "very conservative" FreedomWorks.[51] 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.[52] [53] [54] [55] Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) has also endorsed the protest.[56]

The "most prominent addition" to the protest was the "Reform Government Surveillance" coalition,[57] which includes AOL, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yahoo. It was not initially clear how the sites would participate.[58] 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."[59] 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."[60] 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.[61]

Groups supporting The Day We Fight Back include the EFF, the ACLU, Freedomworks,[55] Greenpeace, Demand Progress, Human Rights Watch, the Government Accountability Project,[62] Restore the Fourth, the Free Software Foundation, and Amnesty International.[55] Websites supporting the protest included Reddit,[63] Tumblr,[63] Wikia, Mozilla, Facebook, and Google.[2] [64]

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.[65] The Huffington Post released images of various memes meant to be posted to sites like Facebook and Twitter as part of the event.[66] Tens of thousands of individuals pledged to make calls and Internet posts supporting surveillance reform.[67]

Reaction

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

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."[71]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Major thanks to our friends @sinak, @demandprogress, and @neutralthoughts [(Thomas Davis)]. #TheDayWeFightBack wouldn't have been possible without them ]. . EFF . February 12, 2014 . 24 February 2014.
  2. Web site: It's time to reform government surveillance laws.
  3. News: Advocacy groups plan day of protest against NSA surveillance . . Grant . Gross . January 10, 2014 . January 14, 2014.
  4. News: Reddit, Mozilla And Others To Protest NSA Spying, Honor Aaron Swartz On 'The Day We Fight Back' . . Eric . Brown . January 14, 2014 . January 14, 2014.
  5. Solon. Olivia. Don't Spy On Us: it's time to hold politicians to account for mass surveillance. https://web.archive.org/web/20140222142045/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/11/dont-spy-on-us/viewgallery/332316. 2014-02-22. 2023-02-27. Wired UK. 2014-02-11.
  6. News: Albanesius. Chloe. The Day We Fight Back: What You Need to Know. PC Magazine. 11 February 2014.
  7. News: Sparkes. Matthew. Reddit and Tumblr among websites protesting NSA surveillance. The Telegraph. 11 February 2014. London. February 11, 2014.
  8. News: Siner. Emily. The Internet Flexes Political Muscle With Anti-NSA Protest. NPR. 11 February 2014.
  9. Web site: Today, February 11th, 2014 is The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance . 2014-02-11.
  10. Web site: Data Spying: Feb. 11 To Become "The Day We Fight Back" . Valuewalk.com. 2014-02-04 . 2014-02-11.
  11. News: Damon. Poeter. The Day We Fight Back Generates Nearly 100K Calls To Congress. 17 February 2014. PC Magazine.
  12. News: 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. 10 February 2014.
  13. News: Wagstaff. Keith. Reddit, Tumblr and More Protest NSA With 'Day We Fight Back'. NBC News. 10 February 2014.
  14. News: Rickwood. Lee. Protesting mass surveillance: Canada called to join The Day We Fight Back. Calgary Herald. 17 February 2014.
  15. News: Gilmore. Dan. Get ready: the day we fight back against mass surveillance is coming. The Guardian. 9 February 2014.
  16. News: Aaron Swartz Documentary Clip Reveals Activist's Thoughts On NSA, Pushes Day Of Action . . Joanna . Zelman . January 11, 2014 . January 15, 2014.
  17. News: Hacking of MIT website marks first anniversary of Aaron Swartz's death . . Martin . Pengelly . January 11, 2014 . January 15, 2014.
  18. News: Aaron Swartz: The life we lost and the day we fight back . Athens News . Amy . Goodman . January 26, 2014.
  19. Web site: 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 . Cory . Doctorow . Brian . Knappenberger . Peter . Eckersley . David . Segal . January 10, 2014.
  20. News: Wolfgang. Ben. Obama faces 'day of action' to protest NSA reforms. The Washington Times. 10 February 2014.
  21. Web site: Stuckey. Daniel. How an Anti-NSA Campaign Took Over the Internet. Motherboard. 12 February 2014.
  22. Web site: Segal. David. We are "The Day We Fight Back" Organizers, Ask Us Anything. Reddit.
  23. News: MIT also pressing charges against hacking suspect . Josh . Gerstein . July 22, 2011 . 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. .
  24. Commonwealth v. Swartz . 11-52CR73 & 11-52CR75 . MIT Police Incident Report 11-351 . . nolle prosequi Dec. 16, 2011 . http://mitcrimeclub.org/SwartzFilings-state.pdf . 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.... .
  25. US Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts . Alleged Hacker Charged With Stealing Over Four Million Documents from MIT Network . July 19, 2011 . January 17, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120526080523/http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/2011/July/SwartzAaronPR.html . May 26, 2012 . mdy-all.
  26. News: Aaron Swartz, internet freedom activist, dies aged 26 . BBC News . January 13, 2013 . 2013-01-13.
  27. Aaron Swartz, Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist, Is Dead at 26. Time. January 13, 2013. January 13, 2013.
  28. Web site: Prosecutor as bully . Lessig Blog, v2 . Lawrence . Lessig . January 12, 2013 . January 12, 2013.
  29. News: Internet Activist, a Creator of RSS, Is Dead at 26, Apparently a Suicide . https://web.archive.org/web/20130115065424/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html . 2013-01-15 . . John . Schwartz . January 12, 2013 . February 27, 2023.
  30. Web site: Anonymous Hacks MIT Website in Memory of Aaron Swartz, Announces 'The Day We Fight Back' . BostInno . Lauren . Landry . January 11, 2014.
  31. Requiem for a dream: The tragedy of Aaron Swartz . . Larissa . MacFarquhar . March 11, 2013 . [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..
  32. News: The Idealist: Aaron Swartz wanted to save the world. Why couldn't he save himself? . . Justin . Peters . 6 . February 7, 2013 . 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. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130210170319/http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/02/aaron_swartz_he_wanted_to_save_the_world_why_couldn_t_he_save_himself.6.html . February 10, 2013 . mdy-all .
  33. News: Co-founder of Reddit Aaron Swartz found dead . CBS News . January 12, 2013 . January 12, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130113042659/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57563656/co-founder-of-reddit-aaron-swartz-found-dead/ . January 13, 2013.
  34. News: Gabbatt. Adam. Protesters rally for 'the day we fight back' against mass surveillance. 11 February 2014.
  35. Web site: O'Brien . Danny . Danny O'Brien (journalist) . Today Is the Day the Internet Fights Back to Protect Privacy . . February 11, 2014 . 2023-02-27.
  36. Web site: A List of Events Happening on The Day We Fight Back . The Day We Fight Back . 2014-02-11.
  37. Web site: Tag internettet tilbage! 11. februar 2014 - Demonstration mod masseovervågning . Taginternettettilbage.nu . 2014-02-11.
  38. Web site: Pressemeddelelse : 31 January 2014 . Taginternettettilbage.nu . 2014-02-11.
  39. Web site: The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance . Restore The Fourth San Francisco Bay Area . 2013-11-23 . 2014-02-11.
  40. AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence . Wired . May 17, 2006 . February 27, 2009.
  41. News: The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say). James. Bamford. Wired. 15 March 2012. 23 April 2012.
  42. Web site: A Day To Fight Back | R Street Institute | Free Markets. Real Solutions . Rstreet.org . 1999-02-22 . 2014-02-11.
  43. Web site: RI groups protest federal government surveillance - Beaumont Enterprise . www.beaumontenterprise.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140222143007/http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/RI-groups-protest-federal-government-surveillance-5224024.php . 2014-02-22.
  44. Web site: Stockholm: Demonstrera med oss på The Day We Fight Back . Piratpartiet Stockholm . 2014-02-06 . 2014-02-11.
  45. https://cryptoparty.at/graz graz
  46. Web site: The Day We Fight Back . Sflc.in . 2014-02-07 . 2014-02-11.
  47. News: The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance . KBOO . 2014-01-31 . 2014-02-11.
  48. Web site: Snapshot Of The World - Feb. 10-17 - All News Is Global . Worldcrunch.com . 2014-02-11.
  49. Web site: ZUMA Pictures Of The Day: News, Sports, Celeb images and more . Thepicturesoftheday.com . 2014-02-11.
  50. News: Miles . Mogulescu . It Can Happen Again: Covert Government Programs to Discredit Martin Luther King and Other Dissenters Show Dangers of NSA . The Huffington Post . February 10, 2014. 2014-02-11.
  51. News: Get ready: the day we fight back against mass surveillance is coming . Dan . Gillmor . The Guardian . 2007-09-28 . 2014-02-11.
  52. Web site: Janney . Elizabeth . Surveillance Protestors Take 'USA Freedom Act' Demonstration Online - Government - Bel Air, MD Patch . Belair.patch.com . 2014-02-11.
  53. News: Mass protests planned for Tues over NSA surveillance . Fox News . 2014-02-07 . 2014-02-11.
  54. News: Cowan . Paris . Greens go black to fight online surveillance - Security - Technology - News . Itnews.com.au . 2014-02-11.
  55. Web site: Paul . Wagenseil . Facebook Supporting 'Day We Fight Back' Protest – Tom's Guide . Tomsguide.com . 2014-02-11.
  56. Web site: The Day We Fight Back: Congress Battered With Emails And Phone Calls In Internet Protest Of NSA Spying. International Business Times. February 11, 2014.
  57. News: Swartz. Jon. Tech giants team up in anti-snooping effort. USA Today. 11 February 2014. December 9, 2013.
  58. News: Voltz. Dustin. Coalition of Google, Facebook, and Other Tech Giants Join Mass NSA Protest. National Journal. 11 February 2014.
  59. News: 'The Day We Fight Back': Top Tech Firms Urge Changes to U.S. Spying. AP. NBC News . 12 February 2014.
  60. News: Sledge. Matt. Google Backs Major Effort To Rein In NSA. The Huffington Post. 12 February 2014. February 11, 2014.
  61. News: The Day We Fight Back: can an internet protest stop the NSA?*. The Verge. February 10, 2014. Adi. Robertson.
  62. Web site: Today, 'The Day We Fight Back' Goes Global - Government Accountability Project . www.whistleblower.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140213231300/http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/48-2014/3183-today-the-day-we-fight-back-goes-global . 2014-02-13.
  63. News: Wagstaff . Keith . Reddit, Tumblr and More Protest NSA With 'Day We Fight Back' . NBC News . 2013-11-22 . 2014-02-11.
  64. Web site: Google on NSA: We Need Rules, Transparency and Oversight. Lorenzo. Franceschi-Bicchierai. Mashable.
  65. News: Rhodan . Maya . NSA Surveillance Protest: 'The Day We Fight Back' | TIME.com . https://web.archive.org/web/20140211053756/http://swampland.time.com/2014/02/10/the-day-we-fight-back-protests-nsa-surveillance/ . dead . February 11, 2014 . Swampland.time.com . 2014-02-11.
  66. News: Kleinman. Alexis. Feb. 11 Is 'The Day We Fight Back' Against NSA Surveillance. The Huffington Post. 10 February 2014. February 10, 2014.
  67. News: Gross. Grant. More than 4,000 groups sign up to protest the NSA. PCWorld. 10 February 2014.
  68. Web site: LaCapria. Kim.
    1. StopTheNSA Trends On Twitter Thanks to The Day We Fight Back
    . B2C. 11 February 2014.
  69. News: Kopan. Tal.
    1. StopTheNSA lights up Twitter
    . Politico. 11 February 2014.
  70. Web site: Sanders. Bernie. Tweet. Twitter. 11 February 2014.
  71. News: The Day the Internet Didn't Fight Back . . Bits . Nicole . Perlroth . February 11, 2014 . March 4, 2014.

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