Why Wikimedia Just Might Win Its Lawsuit Over NSA Surveillance
(Truthdig) The National Security Agency and the Department of Justice are being sued by Wikimedia, the nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia—the online encyclopedia whose articles can be written or edited by anyone.
Wikimedia claims that the U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs are threatening its ability to spread free, open and honest information and that the way the NSA collects data violates the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The organization is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and is joined in the suit by eight other plaintiffs, including the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA and The Nation.
The suit is specifically challenging the NSA’s use of “upstream surveillance,” which taps directly into the Internet’s backbone—the network of cables and routers that makes the Web possible—and intercepts all the traffic that goes across it.
Under the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the agency only has the legal authority to gather data on foreign nationals residing outside the United States, but in reality, far more data is being collected on American citizens than on foreigners.
The NSA has made claims none of this data is technically “collected” until it’s been utilized in some way. ................(more)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_wikimedia_just_might_win_its_lawsuit_over_nsa_surveillance_20150327
