[Advocacy Advisors] Announcement: WMF to file suit against the NSA today

[Michelle Paulson]

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 at 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>.*
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