11 February 2014 – The Day We Fought Back Mass Surveillance

Yesterday, on 11 February 2014, digital rights organizations,
civil-society groups, authors, and Internet users across six continents
were protesting to demand an end to mass surveillance, in an event
initiated and coordinated by EDRi member Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) – USA.

Over 6 000 websites committed to stand with the organizers in this
global day of action. And dozens of advocacy organizations
worldwide organized events or protests to support the stand against mass
surveillance. This included EDRi members Panoptykon Foundation in
Poland, Bits of Freedom in Netherlands or EDRi Observer La Quadrature du
Net in France.

The UK’s leading privacy and free expression groups – including EDRi
member Open Rights Group – have launched the DontSpyOnUs.org.uk
campaign, calling for organizations to help stop GCHQ’s mass
surveillance programs. The campaign gathered more than 4,000 signatures
just in the first day.

Also in just one day, over 85 000 concerned US citizens picked up the
phone and told their Congress to rein in the NSA. Far more sent emails
to their members of Congress.

Around the world, over 230 000 concerned citizens put their name to a
set of founding principles against warantless surveillance: by the NSA,
by their own governments, by anyone who dares to violate our human
rights. The 13 “Necessary and Proportionate” Principles to protect human
rights and privacy were the product of over a year of consultation among
civil society, privacy and technology experts and they have already been
co-signed by over hundred organisations from around the world.

Here’s what members of the Necessary and Proportionate Principles
Coalition say about why they’re taking part in the Day We Fight Back:

Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group, United Kingdom:
“Mass surveillance is an existential threat to democratic governance. It
is corrosive by creating possibilities of easy abuse that extend to
every citizen’s lives at the whim of secret agencies. This is not just a
question of accountability and transparency, but whether we are prepared
to stand up for our future as a free society.”

Katarzyna Szymielewicz, Executive Director, Panoptykon Foundation, Poland:
“Mass surveillance is no longer a local or national problem. It has been
enabled by international cooperation across jurisdictions and regardless
of any legal standards. Cooperation of intelligence agencies,
governments, and companies is the biggest challenge in fighting
surveillance but also the reason why we need to get together for such a
fight. This is also why Panoptykon Foundation asked 100 questions on
surveillance to the Polish government but demanded some of the answers
directly from President Obama.”

The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance (11.02.2014)
https://thedaywefightback.org/

UK petition – Take Action against mass surveillance
https://www.dontspyonus.org.uk/org

Civil Society Demands an End to Mass Surveillance on “The Day We Fight
Back” (11.02.2014)
https://edri.org/civil-society-demands-end-mass-surveillance-day-fight-back/

International Community Unites to Protest Big Brother (11.02.2014)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/02/international-community-unites-protest-big-brother

The Day We Fought Back (11.02.2014)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/02/day-we-fought-back

International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to
Communications Surveillance (10.07.2013)
https://en.necessaryandproportionate.org/text