Week of Action Opposing CISPA

This week, Access joins a coalition of Internet advocacy organizations in a week of action to express our opposition to the U.S. Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

If CISPA rings a bell, it’s because it’s the exact same terrible bill the U.S. Congress was debating last year before stalling in the Senate. And like a zombie, it’s back from the dead: lawmakers have been holding hearings and are aggressively pushing for the bill’s passage next month.

CISPA’s provisions would let private sector companies indiscriminately share user information with the U.S. government, without oversight or due process, and with full immunity for their actions. This information could be used for purposes far beyond cybersecurity, including any national security concern, and shared with military and intelligence agencies with limited public oversight.

If CISPA passes, it won’t just affect Internet users in the United States. It will set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the world, and threaten the privacy of millions of people who communicate on networks crossing U.S. jurisdiction or use services based in the United States, like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

The coalition of organizations fighting CISPA agree: legislation intended to enhance our computer and network security must not sacrifice long-standing rights and protections.

You can take action to stop this bill. Tell two of its largest corporate sponsors, AT&T and Verizon, to drop their support for CISPA.

Other ways to participate include:

Coalition participants include:

Access

ACLU

Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder of Reddit

American Library Association

Association of Research Libraries

Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Center for Democracy & Technology

Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Daily Kos

Demand Progress

DownsizeDC.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Entertainment Consumers Association

Fight for the Future

Free Press

Government Accountability Project

Internet Defense League

Liberty Coalition

Namecheap

New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute

NY Tech Meetup

OpenMedia

Personal Democracy Media

Politihacks

TechFreedom