Surveillance expansion threatens press freedom – and everyone else's
Image created using Midjourney, CC BY-NC
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.
Take Action
Tell Congress to Fix Section 702 of FISA.
-
Call or Email Your Senator or Representative
-
Call or email your senator or representative and urge them to fix Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A recent change to the law has vastly expanded the government’s spying powers.
- Learn More
-
-
Write to Your Local Paper
-
Help advance press freedom by writing newspaper op-eds or letters to the editor in support of fixing Section 702 of FISA.
- Learn More
-
Featured Items
-
Citizen Lab Q and A: The abuses of NSO Group’s hacking software and the threats to journalists
Citizen Lab Senior Researcher John Scott-Railton on the abuses of NSO Group’s hacking software and the threats it poses to journalists
-
Spyware vendor defends hacking journalists, continues to embolden abusive governments
The founder of of spyware vendor NSO Group appeared to defend targeting journalists, activists, and human rights defenders with its malicious software Pegasus in an interview days ago with CBS.
-
The US government is increasingly targeting journalists at the US-Mexico border
Numerous journalists covering the migrant caravan have been subjected to secondary screenings at the US-Mexico border, questioned, and searched. It’s not the first time CBP has targeted the press.
-
Expanding the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker two years after launch
We're expanding our US Press Freedom Tracker project, which systematically tracks press freedom violations in the United States.
-
Several recent moves by Trump’s Justice Department threaten press freedom
Trump's Justice Department has much more power over journalists than Trump's tweets, and may be getting ready to use it.
-
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in 2018: Year two of documenting attacks on the press in the Trump era
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented numerous attacks on journalists and press freedom rights across the country in 2018, from arrests to physical attacks and prosecutions of sources.
-
Good riddance to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, enemy of press freedom
Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned yesterday, apparently at the request of President Donald Trump. During his two years in office, Sessions has used the power of the Justice Department to lead a crackdown on civil liberties and press freedom. As the ACLU remarked, Sessions “was the worst attorney general in modern American history."
-
Important new report sheds light on the US government’s border stops of journalists
A new report by the Committee to Protect to Journalists details officials’ unacceptable targeting of reporters at the border, including interrogating them about their work and pressuring them to hand over devices and passwords.
-
Support FBI whistleblower Terry Albury, who is set to be sentenced next week
The documents whistleblower Terry Albury is assumed to have shared detail the FBI’s recruitment tactics, investigations of minorities, and how the agency monitors journalists. Next week, he'll be sentenced in federal court, and for his act of courage, he could face years in prison.
-
New documents reveal details of the FBI’s dangerous practice of impersonating journalists
Every time a government agent impersonates a journalist to conduct its own investigation, they are putting countless real journalists at risk. The FBI has engaged in the practice for years while keeping its policies a secret, but thanks to documents released as part of a FOIA lawsuit by Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, we now know a little more.
