Hi All,
I’m writing to let you know that today the Wikimedia Foundation[1] is filing suit against the National Security Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency, the Department of Justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice, and the U.S. Attorney General https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General[2] in order to challenge certain mass surveillance practices carried out by the U.S. government. We believe these practices are impinging the freedom to learn, inquire, and explore on Wikimedia sites.
Since the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures, we’ve heard concerns from the community about privacy on Wikipedia. This lawsuit is a step towards addressing the community's justified concerns. We believe that the surveillance methods being employed by the NSA under the authority of the FISA Amendments Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008 negatively impact our users' ability and willingness to participate in our projects. Today, we fight back.
An op-ed http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/opinion/stop-spying-on-wikipedia-users.html?_r=0 by Lila and Jimmy about the lawsuit, and Wikimedia's stance on government surveillance, appeared in The New York Times this morning. Additionally, we just published a blog post https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/10/wikimedia-v-nsa/ with more information about the suit. (The post will also up on Meta for translation).
Best,
Michelle Paulson
Senior Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
mpaulson@wikimedia.org
[1] We are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union (ACLU). Other plaintiffs include The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers http://www.nacdl.org/, Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/, Amnesty International USA http://www.amnestyusa.org/, Pen American Center https://www.pen.org/, Global Fund for Women http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/, The Nation Magazine http://www.thenation.com/, The Rutherford Institute https://www.rutherford.org/, and Washington Office on Latin America http://www.wola.org/.
[2] Other named defendants include: Michael Rogers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_S._Rogers, in his official capacity as Director of the National Security Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_the_National_Security_Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service; Office of the Director of National Intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_National_Intelligence; James Clapper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Clapper, in his official capacity as Director of National Intelligence; and Eric Holder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder, in his official capacity as Attorney General https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General of the United States.
*NOTICE: This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation and for legal/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.*