Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Worldwide Day of Activism

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Aaron Swartz

The Day We Fight Back

Worldwide Day of Activism

Feb. 11, 2014

Dear Users of the Internet,
In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. A year ago this month one of that movement’s leaders, Aaron Swartz, tragically passed away.
Today we face a different threat, one that undermines the Internet, and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.
If Aaron were alive, he’d be on the front lines, fighting against a world in which governments observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action.
Now, on the eve of the anniversary of Aaron’s passing, and in celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA that he helped make possible, we are announcing a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.

The Day We Fight Back 

The US Government Murdered Aaron Swartz. Aaron Swartz. The true fighter against tyranny in the U.S. By Norman Bliss, Political Activist‎
Aaron Swartz Documentary Clip Reveals Activist’s Thoughts on NSA, Pushes Day of Action
One year after Internet activist Aaron Swartz’s death, a group of activists and online platforms are uniting for a day of activism against the National Security Agency’s surveillance tactics.
At the time of his death last Jan. 11, Swartz was facing up to 50 years in prison for downloading academic journal articles at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, allegedly pursuing his goal of opening access.
In a clip provided to The Huffington Post from the upcoming documentary, “The Internet’s Own Boy,” Swartz reflects on the NSA in an interview from 2012, finding the scope of the agency’s activities “scary” and saying, “It is shocking to think that the accountability is so lax that they don’t even have sort of basic statistics about how big the spying program is. If the answer is, ‘Oh, we’re spying on so many people we can’t possibly even count them,’ then that’s an awful lot of people.”
The NSA’s programs came under even more scrutiny since the interview, after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents that revealed the agency’s wide range of surveillance.
President Barack Obama will address NSA surveillance programs on Jan. 17. The Associated Press reports that Obama “is expected to announce curbs on U.S. spying on friendly foreign leaders. He’s also seriously considering a plan that would strip the NSA of its ability to store phone record data from millions of Americans.”
The documentary clip encourages viewers to “join the fight against mass suspicion less surveillance” during a worldwide day of activism Feb. 11 dubbed “The Day We Fight Back.” The protest also will celebrate the Stop Online Piracy Act’s failure two years ago, a battle aided by Swartz.
Aaron Swartz Documentary Clip Reveals Activist’s Thoughts On NSA, Pushes Day Of Action
Aaron Swartz – SOPA and The Day We Fight Back
Aaron Swartz. The true fighter against tyranny in the U.S.

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