Hello All,
Earlier this month, the Wikimedia Foundation, along with a coalition of 43
civil liberties, civil rights, and transparency organizations, signed a
letter
<https://s3.amazonaws.com/demandprogress/letters/Orgs_endorse_USA_Rights_amendment_and_oppose_unaltered_FISA_Authorization_bill_2018-01-10.pdf>
urging Congress to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008>,
the law that allegedly authorizes the mass surveillance challenged in our
lawsuit, Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency
<https://policy.wikimedia.org/stopsurveillance/>. In the letter, we urged
Congress to oppose a straightforward reauthorization of the law and to
support meaningful reforms.
On January 11th, the U.S. House of Representatives
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives>
quashed the opportunity for those reforms by voting to reauthorize Section
702 with minimal changes. The bill then went to the U.S. Senate
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate> for further
consideration. Despite opposition in the Senate from both major political
parties, on January 16th, a filibuster
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster> to block the bill narrowly
failed. Yesterday, the bill cleared the Senate, and it was signed into law
today
<https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/01/19/technology/19reuters-usa-trump-cyber-surveillance.html>.
Although we are deeply disappointed in this result, the Wikimedia
Foundation will continue to fight for user privacy, including in Wikimedia
Foundation v. NSA. We will keep you updated on further developments.
Best,
Stephen
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Director
Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*