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[demand-progress]

Making a phone call might not be your favorite thing. But some senators are trying to use the amendment process to ram through an expansion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — a threat to activists and the same law used to prosecute Aaron Swartz. 

The CFAA is broken, and it deserves a comprehensive, public input process before any reforms are made. 

This won’t stand. Call your senators today and demand that they oppose this expansion — https://fixthecfaa.com — then reblog this post to spread the word.

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Some strong words from Pope Francis today on our political system.

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Not a good look, Jeb.

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Good question, Stephen.

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Congress: Now is the time for #peace. Now is the time for #diplomacy. Now is the time to support the #IranDeal. http://thndr.it/1WSsoBJ

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PHOTOS: Chelsea Manning supporters deliver 100,000 signatures to Army officials ahead of Tuesday hearing on solitary confinement

Petition signers call for the Army to drop new charges, stop harassing WikiLeaks whistleblower Manning, who will face a disciplinary board this afternoon with no attorney present

WASHINGTON, DC––This morning, advocacy groups supporting imprisoned WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning delivered a petition signed by more than 100,000 people to the Army Liason office in Congress.

See PHOTOS of the petition delivery and Manning supporters with large banner here:  http://imgur.com/a/IKtWF

The petition at FreeChelsea.com was initiated by digital rights group Fight for the Future and supported by RootsAction.org,Demand Progress, and CodePink. It calls for the U.S. military to drop the new charges against Chelsea, and demands that her disciplinary hearing at 1:30pm CT today  be open to the press and the public.

Chelsea faces possible indefinite solitary confinement, which is widely recognized as a form of torture, for four “charges,” which include possession of LGBTQ reading material like the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair, and having a tube of expired toothpaste in her cell. The charges were first revealed at FreeChelsea.com, and Manning has since posted the original charging documents to her twitter account here and here. She has also posted the complete list of confiscated reading materials here.

On Saturday, Chelsea called supporters to alert them that military correctional staff denied her access to the prison legal library. This development comes just two days before she must present a defense (without her lawyers present) before the disciplinary board that could sentence her to potentially indefinite solitary confinement.

Chase Strangio, Chelsea’s attorney at the ACLU, said: “During the five years she has been incarcerated Chelsea has had to endure horrific and, at times, plainly unconstitutional conditions of confinement. She now faces the threat of further dehumanization because she allegedly disrespected an officer when requesting an attorney and had in her possession various books and magazines that she used to educate herself and inform her public and political voice. I am heartened to see the outpouring of support for her in the face of these new threats to her safety and security. This support can break down the isolation of her incarceration and sends the message to the government that the public is watching and standing by her as she fights for her freedom and her voice.”

Evan Greer, Campaign Director of Fight for the Future, said:“The U.S. government has a terrifying track record of using imprisonment and torture to silence free speech and dissenting voices. They’ve tortured Chelsea Manning before and now they’re threatening to do it again, without any semblance of due process. Perhaps the military thought that now that Chelsea is behind bars she’s been forgotten, but the tens of thousands who signed this petition are proving them wrong. Chelsea Manning is a hero and the whole world is watching the U.S. government’s deplorable treatment of whistleblowers, transgender people, and prison inmates in general.”

Nancy Hollander, one of Chelsea’s criminal defense attorneys, said: “Chelsea is facing serious repercussions and punishment if these charges are upheld, yet the prison has denied her the right to legal counsel, even legal counsel at her own expense. Now we have learned the prison authorities have denied her the use of the prison library to prepare for her hearing. The whole system is rigged against her. She cannot have a lawyer to assist her; she cannot prepare her own defense; and the hearing will be secret. This harassment and abuse must end and we are grateful for the support from the public to demand justice for Chelsea Manning.”

Sara Cederberg, Campaign Director of Demand Progress, said: “The charges against Chelsea Manning set a dangerous precedent for anyone who exercises their civil liberties to speak out against the abuses of our government. Long-term solitary confinement is a form of torture, and no one deserves this cruel and unusual psychological punishment. Today, and every day, thousands of Demand Progress members are standing with Chelsea, democracy and free speech.”

David Swanson, Campaign Coordinator at RootsAction.org, said: "Our petition demanding relief from this latest injustice for Manning has been the fastest-starting petition we’ve ever had, and it’s full of eloquent comments from thousands of people who by all rights should have been past the point of outrage overload. Here is a straightforward case of a whistleblower of the sort that candidate Obama in 2008 said he would reward, and she’s being punished not only unjustly but in violation of laws back at least to the Eighth Amendment. President Obama has long claimed to have ended torture. The U.S. military in effect is threatening to torture a young woman for having the wrong toothpaste and magazine.“

Nancy Mancias, of the peace group CODEPINK, said: "The recent charges are inappropriate, extreme and ridiculous, Chelsea Manning has done a great service by leaking US war crimes in Iraq. Manning should have a right to legal counsel when requested, and threatening to her isolate from community is inhumane.”

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[demand-progress]

Stop. CISA. Now.

Sara Cederberg, Campaign Director

You’ve probably seen a lot on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. You might have taken action with us in the past on the similar-sounding Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. So where is this issue now — and what does it mean?

The United States Senate may soon consider CISA — S. 754. This bill is fundamentally flawed because of its aggressive spying powers, broad immunity clauses for companies, and vague definitions of key terms. Combined, they make CISA a surveillance and anti-internet freedom bill in disguise:

But with your help, we’ll make sure Congress and President Obama the message: now more than ever, we don’t need more cyber surveillance. And here’s what you can do:

Visit the Stop Cyber Spying coalition website where you can email your Senators and tell them to vote no on CISA.

Use an AWESOME new tool developed by Fight for the Future to fax your lawmakers from the Internet. We want to make sure they get a tangible follow-up to the email you sent them — and that they understand how outdated their approach to technology is.

Check out and participate in a CISA AMA on Reddit on Wednesday July 29 at 10am ET/7am PT!

Help us spread the word. After you’ve taken action, tweet out why CISA must be stopped with the hashtag #StopCISA. Use the hashtag #FaxBigBrother if you want to automatically send a fax to your Senator opposing CISA. 

For more detailed analysis, you can check out this blog post and this chart.

[demand-progress]

Access to Your Email Without a Warrant: Updating ECPA For the Digital Age

Sara Cederberg, Campaign Director

“It sounded like a good idea at the time...”

When the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was passed in 1986, it aimed to set standards for law enforcement access to digital communications and privacy protections for users like us. Reasonable enough.

But time passed. Innovation in computing and Internet access progressed more quickly than anyone could have ever imagined, and policymakers struggled to keep up with a basic understanding of how the online tools that we use to shape our personal and office communications actually work.

As a result, we have a law that’s more outdated than one of these:

(In case you were wondering, that’s a pager.)

The patchwork quilt of standards that were modern in the mid ‘80′s are now woefully outdated – and an affront to even the most basic of our civil liberties.

Here’s how bad it is:

An email can be accessed without a warrant just because a message is over 180 days old. That dorky first email your partner sent you asking you out on a date six months ago and you’ve saved out of nostalgia? It’s open season for law enforcement!

Location information usage is ambiguous. ECPA does not have a clear policy on law enforcement access to your location data. With more and more apps and website relying on your position to serve you up localized content and directions on where you need to go, this is clearly a treasure trove of information waiting to be discovered without your consent. 

Luckily, Congress can make this right by moving legislation to fix ECPA forward. A large, bipartisan majority in the House (280+!) is already on board with a bill that would do just that — a rare feat for any piece of legislation on Capitol Hill. 

The Email Privacy Act — sponsored by Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) — is now the most popular bill in the House to not earn a vote.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Demand Progress members are continuing to put the pressure on their legislators and Congressional leadership — and you can, too!

Click here to sign our petition calling on Congress to bring this bill to a vote — then ask your friends to do the same.

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Demand Progress members like Mike in Nebraska are taking the fight to save Net Neutrality from appropriations threats straight to their members of Congress while they’re at home this week.

Learn more about what’s at stake and how you can take part by clicking here.

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#POTUS: We have a right to know. Sign #BetterPolitics EO forcing fed contractors to disclose political contributions! http://thndr.it/1BkjViX

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Ever wondered what goes through the mind of a cable executive? Watch and learn.

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Save Net Neutrality!

We just sent the email below to our list this morning. Here’s the deal: there’s a threat to Net Neutrality in Congress that we have real reason to believe could move quickly. Learn more about this bad plan and how you can help.

Take a moment to celebrate: Net Neutrality is officially the law of the land! Demand Progress members like you were front and center in helping us achieve this historic victory.

Unfortunately, cable and phone companies are more emboldened than ever to kill a free and open Internet, and they're pushing their allies in Congress to do their dirty work.

They've slipped language into an appropriations bill that strips the FCC's ability to use the government funds they need to implement Net Neutrality regulations until a series of telecom industry-backed legal challenges are settled.

With a vote on this bill scheduled for early Wednesday morning in the House Committee on Appropriations, members need to hear from you today.

Can you make a call to a member of the House Committee on Appropriations and ask that they halt this sneak attack on Net Neutrality?

Yes, I'll make a phone call to a member of the committee.

No, I can't do that — but I'll chip in $5 to help protect Net Neutrality.

The broader context of the appropriations fight in Congress makes this attack all the more troubling: these anti-Net Neutrality provisions in a funding bill are part of an effort to set the stage for their inclusion in a must-pass funding bill later this year.

This is not how a democracy is supposed to work. If Congress leaves this sneaky language intact, they're ignoring the 81% of Americans who think that companies like Comcast and Verizon shouldn't interfere with our ability to communicate and innovate freely online.[1]

We can't let Big Cable and their cronies in Congress win on this. Can you make a call to a member of the House Commitee on Appropriations and ask that they strike any language in government funding bills that prevents the FCC from doing its job?

Yes, I'll make a phone call to a member of the committee.

No, I can't do that — but I'll chip in $5 to help protect Net Neutrality.

Source:

1. New poll: Republicans and Democrats both overwhelmingly support net neutrality, The Washington Post, November 12, 2014

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If you do anything today, make sure it’s signing our petition with SumOfUs to stop the anti-democratic and dangerous Trans-Pacific Partnership before a key vote tomorrow.

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Well that didn’t take long.

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Demand Progress, CREDO and Fight for the Future praise temporary  PATRIOT Act sunset, criticize vote to advance USA Freedom Act

The fake-reform bill is an attack on civil liberties and codifies some of the worst mass surveillance abuses of the PATRIOT Act

Media contact: Mark Stanley, Demand Progress, 202.681.7582 Email: press@demandprogress.org

The expiration of key PATRIOT Act provisions — even if only temporary — is a victory for the countless civil liberties activists in every congressional district in the country who, since Edward Snowden blew the whistle on government surveillance, have fought for real reform. It demonstrates that the public can win battles in Congress that just a few years ago we were barely able to fight at all.

However, the Senate failed the American people today. Despite overwhelming evidence that Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act violates our civil liberties without making us safer, the Senate overwhelmingly bowed to pressure from surveillance agencies and voted to advance a bill that would renew their illegal and ineffective mass surveillance authorities under the PATRIOT Act.

The USA FREEDOM Act is a mass surveillance bill dressed up as a reform bill, and its passage will authorize unconstitutional surveillance practices.

Given the cloture vote, it seems very likely that the USA FREEDOM Act will pass. But if that happens, each member of the U.S. Senate will be on record for reinstating, with full knowledge of illegal implementation, the largest scale violation of the U.S. Constitution in America’s history — one that is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters, and they will carry that failure through the rest of their political careers.

The expiration of the some of the worst abuses of the PATRIOT Act completely changes the political dynamics in the fight to end mass surveillance. The overwhelming majority of the sitting members of Congress never voted on the PATRIOT Act, and if they vote to reinstate Section 215 they will have gone on the record and must take direct responsibility for authorizing clearly unconstitutional and profoundly unpopular spying.

We will continue fighting to repeal the PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act, rein in the surveillance state, and place real checks on government surveillance.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans who don't want to be indiscriminately spied on by their very own government have brought their will to bear in this fight — and have upended the inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that said a sunset was impossible," said David Segal, Executive Director of Demand Progress. "The fiercely contested battle over the PATRIOT Act and its temporary sunset demonstrate the growing power of the mass movement to reform America's out-of-control surveillance agencies. With the expiration of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, each senator must now go on record and publicly decide whether to protect our civil liberties or codify unconstitutional government spying all over again through the USA FREEDOM Act."

"As a telecom that can be compelled to participate in unconstitutional spying on Americans accused of no crimes, it’s of the greatest urgency that we end the worst abuses of the PATRIOT Act," said Becky Bond, Vice President of CREDO Mobile. "Our surveillance agencies have gone rogue, and sunsetting the PATRIOT Act — even if just for a few days — is the first real step we’ve taken toward restoring civil liberties taken away in the wake of the September 11th attacks. Elected officials who voted to restore this dangerous mass surveillance authority via the USA FREEDOM Act cannot going forward claim to carry the mantle of civil liberties reform."

"Sunsetting the Patriot Act is the biggest win for ending mass surveillance programs, and one that conventional DC wisdom said was impossible. We are seeing history in the making and it was because the public stood up for our rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association – and there’s no turning back now," said Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of Fight for the Future.

"It was like Congress had some sick fetish for George Orwell jokes, or couldn’t wait for the next Hunger Games to come out," said Fight for the Future co-founder, Holmes Wilson, "They were about to reauthorize spying on the emails and calls of every American with a bill called 'USA Freedom!'"

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Advocates, companies thank senators for PATRIOT Act filibuster, call for sunset

Media contact: Mark Stanley, 202.681.7582 Email: press@demandprogress.org

Today, Demand Progress joined 17 other advocacy groups, companies, and privacy experts in signing a letter thanking Senators Blumenthal, Cantwell, Coons, Cruz, Daines, Heinrich, Lee, Manchin, Paul, Tester, and Wyden for filibustering an extension of key PATRIOT Act provisions. The letter also calls on the senators to ensure that no legislation be approved by the Senate, no matter what form it may take, if it would extend the PATRIOT Act. The following statement can be attributed to Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal:

"Only weeks ago, a sunset of key PATRIOT Act provisions seemed impossible. But thanks to the millions of Americans who have called for real reform, and the principled stand made by the senators who blocked an extension of the law, the tide has turned. We are now in a position where true reform is more likely than ever, and in order to achieve it, Members of Congress must stand strong and not waver in their defense of Americans’ fundamental rights.

"The PATRIOT Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of a national crisis, included sunset provisions for a reason: The extraordinary new powers created by the law were to be re-examined — and allowed to expire if abusive or ineffective. Both of those criteria have been met.

"Meanwhile, the USA Freedom Act, which would offer meager reforms to the PATRIOT Act but also codify unacceptable surveillance powers — and even provide immunity to companies that facilitate illegal government spying — does not sufficiently constrain surveillance. The Senate should block it as well, let Section 215 and other provisions expire, and enact further reforms to protect Americans' privacy rights."

The full letter can be read here.

Signatories include:

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)

Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Council on American-Islamic Relations

CREDO

Data Foundry

Defending Dissent Foundation

Demand Progress

Democracy for America

DownsizeDC.org

DuckDuckGo

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Golden Frog

Jennifer Granick*

Liberty Coalition

Restore the Fourth

RootsAction.org

Sunlight Foundation

Tea Party Nation

X-Lab

* Director of Civil Liberties, Stanford Center for Internet and Society (affiliation purposes only)

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