The antisurveillance crowd is trying to get onto the government’s radar. And though it’s a busy Tuesday in the nation’s capital, they seem to be having some success, repurposing an effective 2012 campaign to stop two Internet-related laws. But this time, instead of trying to block measures, a coalition of civil liberties groups and technology companies is flooding social media with calls to pass legislation that would limit the surveillance powers of the National Security Agency.
Presented as “The Day We Fight Back,†a broad coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and companies like Reddit and Tumblr called on Internet users to press lawmakers into action. The campaign compared itself to earlier efforts to block laws like the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act. But as a sign of the movement’s attempt at maturing from opposing laws to backing them, it encouraged participants to support the U.S.A. Freedom Act. The bill, co-sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Representative Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, tries to place statutory limits on the N.S.A.’s surveillance abilities.
By some metrics of social media, the campaign succeeded in capturing a large amount of attention online. Its designated hashtag, #StopTheNSA, was trending during parts of the day among users of Twitter in the United States, with the website Topsy recording a large spike in use of the term in the past two days. On Facebook, the National Security Agency was at the top of the social network’s new “Trending†module for much of Tuesday for some users. The campaign’s website reported that more than 37,000 phone calls had been made and that more than 85,000 emails had been sent in support of its calls to action.
The campaign’s message was getting through to some members of Congress, who took to Twitter to confirm that they were hearing from constituents:
One representative, Mike Honda of California, changed his Twitter avatar to show his support for the campaign:
And other members of Congress also highlighted their support for the U.S.A. Freedom Act:
While the “Day We Fight Back†campaign gained considerable attention on the Internet and from some corners of Congress on a day when major distractions abounded, the prospects for the bill it supports remained uncertain. The U.S.A. Freedom Act, which the campaign is backing, is still being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The FISA Improvements Act, which the campaign opposes, has been reported out of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
