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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Citizen Lab Senior Researcher John Scott-Railton on the abuses of NSO Group’s hacking software and the threats it poses to journalists

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.

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.

We're expanding our US Press Freedom Tracker project, which systematically tracks press freedom violations in the United States.

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 documented numerous attacks on journalists and press freedom rights across the country in 2018, from arrests to physical attacks and prosecutions of sources.

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."

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.

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.

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.
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Thank you for speaking up against warrantless surveillance of journalists and other Americans
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