Posted on 03/10/2015 11:06:07 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
On Tuesday, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that it is suing the US National Security Agency and Department of Justice over surveillance.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind web-based encyclopedia Wikipedia, has teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union and eight other organizations to fight the NSA's mass surveillance program. The suit was filed on Tuesday at a Maryland federal court claiming the NSA and DoJ violated the First and Fourth Amendments with "large-scale search and seizure of internet communications" or "upstream surveillance." This surveillance tactic allows the NSA to collect data on Internet users who communicate with "non US persons" if the matter relates in any way to national security or foreign affairs. This "dragnet surveillance" practice is one of many disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Wikimedia believes that its staff and users may be vulnerable to this practice. "We're filing suit today on behalf of our readers and editors everywhere," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "Surveillance erodes the original promise of the internet: an open space for collaboration and experimentation, and a place free from fear." In a New York Times opinion piece on the lawsuit, Wales wrote, "The harm to Wikimedia and the hundreds of millions of people who visit our websites is clear: Pervasive surveillance has a chilling effect. It stifles freedom of expression and the free exchange of knowledge that Wikimedia was designed to enable." Wikimedia and its fellow plaintiffs are asking the court to put an end to the NSA's dragnet surveillance. The Department of Justice said that it is reviewing the case at this time; the NSA has not commented on the matter.
“What could possibly be secret about Wikimedia?”
Who visits the site and what they’re reading.
It’s an act of prior restraint. Imagine if the NSA announced that they were monitoring Free Republic (and they likely are) and how that might impact people who would otherwise be interested in seeing what’s posted here?
And imagine yourself someday getting stopped by the police for a traffic stop and then they start asking you what you meant on some post of yours?
It can happen. It probably already has in some form or another.
Isn’t wiki a huge left wing lover.
Sure is.
NSA are a bunch of wankers who live in mama’s basement and couldn’t get a date if they were the last living d*ck on the planet.
“Isn’t wiki a huge left wing lover.”
On anything with a political bent, yes it is. But it’s also great for technical information of all sorts. I use it all the time! Just not for anything political. I get to it by using IXQuick search engine. No cookies, or tracking of your IP. Private. Not positive if it’s any safer, but it’s safer than google, jeeves, etc..
https://www.ixquick.com
that is what i use too. Ixquick. Love it.
LOL, leftists suing leftists
Great! Anything google, gmail, is just a spy agency for their advertisers.
Is that right, Uncle Miltie? Know a bunch of Agency wankers, do you? Follow them home to their mamma’s homes? Ever track them to BWI as they’re prepping to deploy to Central Asia or Southwest Asia?
No standing. Sorry. However, these are liberals...
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