RELEASE: SUNSETTHEPATRIOTACT.COM ENCOURAGES THE PUBLIC TO CONTACT CONGRESS TO DEMAND AN END TO MASS SURVEILLANCE
The NSA campus in Fort Meade. The bulk collection of telephone metadata was first revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP
As the House prepares for a vote on the USA Freedom Act this week, 13 netroots groups—representing approximately 10 million Americans—have launched a campaign and activism website calling on Congress to reject reauthorization of key provisions of the PATRIOT Act.
Instead, the site calls for Congress to allow PATRIOT Act provisions—including Section 215, which has been exploited to justify the collection of data on millions of innocent Americans’ phone calls—to sunset on June 1st. Netroots groups plan to use the site to generate hundreds of thousands of emails and tens of thousands of phone calls to Congress over the next two weeks.
Internet users may visit SunsetThePatriotAct.com to make their voices heard.
Groups supporting the effort are the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, CREDO, Daily Kos, Demand Progress, Democrats.com, Left Action, Fight for the Future, Free Press, RH Reality Check, RootsAction, The Nation, The Other 98%, and Win Without War.
“Investigations into the phone data collection program carried out under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act have made it clear it does not make the public safer,” said David Segal, Executive Director of Demand Progress. “While mass surveillance doesn’t reduce the threat of terrorism, it poses a severe, ongoing, unacceptable threat to our most cherished rights, the Constitution, and our democracy. With key PATRIOT Act provisions about to expire, now is our best chance to rein in mass surveillance.”
