EFF Wants Your Help Fighting Telecom Spying Immunity
Jan 30th, 2008 | By Elisabeth Lewin | Category: Citizen Media, Commentary, GeneralThe Electronic Frontier Foundation and People For the American Way are spearheading the fight against amnesty for telecommunications companies which have illegally spied on Americans over the past six years. They’re asking for bloggers & podcasters to speak out against the proposed immunity legislation.
According to the “Stop The Spying” initiative,
The Bush administration has, [over the past six years,] authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct dragnet surveillance on our domestic telecommunications networks,…with no warrants or other meaningful oversight.
…[C]ongressional leadership handed the president even more authority to violate your rights by passing the so-called “Protect America Act” in August 2007. Now the Administration wants to make its power grab permanent and prevent any court from stopping the illegal spying. Proposed immunity legislation could let telephone companies off the hook for their role in the program and block lawsuits like EFF’s case against AT&T.
A majority of likely voters reject immunity for the phone companies, and Congress cannot be allowed to cave. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to retool the new spying law, but he appears to be willing to ignore your rights once again and allow warrantless domestic spying to continue.
Stop The Spying asks that you hand-write a message decrying the telecom amnesty legislation, photograph yourself holding the message, and send your photo to StopTheSpying.org.
If video is your preferred medium, the People for the American Way want your video creations.
Stop The Spying also urges citizens to voice their opposition to this proposed legislation by contacting their lawmakers, by posting on Slashdot, Reddit, Digging related stories, and otherwise spreading the word.
I have been a victim of the local telecom company which is a monopoly of the worst kind. Please stop this illegal wiretapping, hacking and surveillance by the local telecom company in an alliance with the local contractor. Please stop these illegal activities and please stop the telecom immunity bill, as it will destroy every private citizen’s communication and privacy rights if it is allowed to pass.
There should never be any immunity for any person and especially for a telecom.