Surveillance expansion threatens press freedom – and everyone else's


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Mass surveillance is widespread. Congress must rein in government spying powers.
In 2013, whistleblower and longtime Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) board member Edward Snowden’s stunning revelations of mass surveillance by the National Security Agency shocked the world. Since then, we’ve learned even more about the alarming scope of surveillance by the U.S. government.
Mass surveillance undermines everyone’s privacy, and it threatens press freedom by allowing the government to spy on communications between journalists and their sources.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program allows the government to spy on Americans’ communications without a warrant.
Congress is considering renewing a controversial surveillance law RIGHT NOW. Section 702 of FISA allows the FBI and other intelligence agencies to spy on Americans’ communications without a warrant. Call your lawmakers and tell them not to renew Section 702 of FISA without privacy reforms!
We’ll give you a suggestion of what to say and connect you directly with your lawmaker’s office.
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Thank you for speaking up against warrantless surveillance of journalists and other Americans.
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Department of Justice subpoenas for the phone records of three Washington Post reporters represent an outrageous invasion of the First Amendment rights of journalists to communicate with sources, and the defense of their use by the Biden administration raises alarming questions about its commitment to press freedom.

In the past two months, lawmakers in Florida and New Jersey have advanced misguided proposals that would effectively classify assaults on journalists as hate crimes. These proposals would do little to fix the underlying issues and would likely create a host of new problems.

Journalists — especially those without institutional newsroom support — rely on tools from major tech companies like Google and YouTube for newsgathering, production and distribution as a matter of course. As these information giants publicly wrestle with controversial content moderation decisions that dominate headlines and Congressional hearings, their decisions also run the risk of stifling routine reporting.

Freedom of the Press Foundation releases its 2020 Impact Report, outlining the work we’ve accomplished in the past year, an overview of our major projects and initiatives, and how we will be expanding on our work in 2021.

Talking about the importance of press freedom is nice, actually protecting it is much better.

The popular free software project “youtube-dl” was removed from Github on Friday following a legal notice from the Recording Industry Association of America claiming it violates copyright law. The tool is widely used by journalists for various reporting purposes.

A disturbing federal assault on journalists is unfolding in Portland.

The full Senate is expected to vote on the controversial EARN IT Act in the coming days, after unanimous approval from the Judiciary Committee on July 2. EARN IT would open the door to criminalizing encryption protections and increase censorship online, posing a significant threat to press freedom and whistleblowers.

Freedom of the Press Foundation believes Black lives matter, and we support the efforts of activists and protesters exercising their First Amendment rights to take a stand against police brutality.

Despite online privacy concerns at an all-time high, the Senate rejected a critical reform to the Patriot Act yesterday, voting to hand the Trump administration and Attorney General William Barr the ability to spy on Americans’ web browsing habits without a warrant.
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Thank you for speaking up against warrantless surveillance of journalists and other Americans
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