Online coalition vows to fight mass online surveillance by empowering web users.
Led by online freedom organizations, internet firms, and other advocacy groups, a broadbased coalition is coming together with a singular call to “Reset the Net” as a way to beat back government and corporate surveillance on the web.
With a national online day of action scheduled for June 5, supporters of the campaign—including Common Dreams (full disclosure), Free Press, Fight for the Future, Credo Action, RootsAction.org. Demand Progress, Greenpeace, Reddit, CodePink, and dozens of others—say they will use the anniversary of the first reporting about NSA spying based on documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden as an opportunity to reclaim the internet from the spying eyes of the National Security Agency and gross abuse of privacy protections.
As part of its effort to promote the campaign and encourage broad participation, the ‘Reset the Net’ coalition released this video:
“A year after Snowden’s shocking revelations, the NSA is still spying on innocent Americans without a warrant,” said CREDO Mobile’s president and co-founder Michael Kieschnick in a statement. “CREDO will continue to demand Congress and the president take action to stop unconstitutional mass warrantless surveillance, and until we win real reform, we will encourage users to adopt encryption tools to protect their personal communications from government abuse of the 1st and 4th amendment.”
The cornerstone of the campaign calls on web users and site managers to increase cyber-protections by using encryption and other technologies that would curtail government access to otherwise private information. In addition to posting web banners (or splash banners) on June 5, participants are asked to incorporate proven security measures to their online habits or add such features to the sites they manage.
“The NSA is exploiting weak links in Internet security to spy on the entire world,” states the coalition on their website, “twisting the Internet we love into something it was never meant to be.”
The ‘Reset The Net’ urges people to “help stop mass surveillance” by building proven security into the everyday Internet and by participating in the online protest on June 5.
“Without needing anyone’s permission, we can decide our future—one that’s safe, open, and free,” the coalition’s campaign video promises. “It won’t be easy, but if we work hard now, the internet will never be a prison.”
With one month to go, the #ResetTheNet hashtag is beginning to cascade on Twitter.