CISPA is back from the dead again. Time to finish it once and for all.

For immediate release: July 11, 2014

Dear Fight for the Future member,

The Senate Intelligence Committee just rushed to approve “CISA,” a bill that would give the NSA more access to our data than ever before, and give companies like Facebook and Google legal immunity for violating our privacy. [1]

Does “CISA” sound creepily familiar? That’s because it’s another zombified version of CISPA, a privacy-killing bill that Internet users have beaten back twice before, and that has been condemned by public advocacy groups from across the political spectrum as an urgent threat to online privacy and freedom of speech. [2]

Your signature is needed right now to stop CISA. Will you click here to take action? Every second counts, the Senate vote could happen quickly without warning – we need to raise our voices now before it’s too late.

It’s despicable that the Senate Intelligence Committee, who are supposed to oversee the government’s spying programs and protect our rights, chose this moment to resurrect CISPA and advance it to the Senate floor. The explosive revelations of the past week offered further proof that the U.S. government continues to lie about the scope of its illegal spying operation [3], and revealed the harrowing stories of community leaders who were spied on solely because of their political and religious beliefs. [4]

The Intelligence community is out of control. If we let CISA pass, we’d be giving them more power than they’ve ever had before. We can’t let this happen.

Thanks to growing outcry against mass surveillance, it should be easier than ever to defeat legislation like CISA. But we can’t pull our punches. There are powerful interests lobbying for this type of legislation, and they’ve got *way* more money than us. [5] We’ve got the public on our side, but it’s up to us to mobilize.

Congress is trying to do this quietly, so make noise! Click here to stop CISA now.

-Evan, Tiffiniy, Kevin, and Holmes at Fight for the Future

P.S. We can’t stress enough how quickly this bill could move once it hits the Senate floor. It’s now or never to get the word out. Please forward this email to everyone you know and share the petition on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCES:

[1] Ellen Nakashima. Washington Post. Senate intelligence panel advances cybersecurity bill. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/07/08/senate-intelligence-panel-advances-cybersecurity-bill/

[2] Electronic Frontier Foundation. Voices Against CISPA. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/voices-against-cispa

[3] Barton Gellman, Julie Tate, and Ashkan Soltani. The Washington Post. In NSA-intercepted data those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html?tid=pm_pop

[4] Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain. The Intercept . Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/09/under-surveillance/

[5] Sunlight Foundation. Pro-CISPA forces spend 140 times more lobbying than opponents. http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/04/18/pro-cispa-backers-spend-over-100-times-more-lobbying-opponents/

Here’s the latest version of the bill text: http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/files/serve/?File_id=08de1c1b-446b-478c-84a8-0c3f35963216