Over 5300 web-based companies and other organizations have joined forces to protest mass surveillance, proclaiming Feb. 11 as "the day we fight back." Companies participating in the protests include Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr, Mozilla, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The protests, called "The Day We Fight Back," are in response to revelations from the past year of the expansive surveillance programs the US government, specifically the National Security Agency, has employed.
The Guardian reports that the primary goal of the movement is to urge lawmakers to support the USA Freedom Act to restore civil liberties threatened by the current surveillance state.
As the Huffington Post notes, the mass internet protest is a relatively new concept.
The only precedent was on Jan. 18, 2012, when popular sites like Wikipedia participated in a blackout for 12 hours to raise awareness of two bills. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) threatened internet sovereignty, and the protests halted the passage of a bill that was practically guaranteed to become law before.
It remains to be seen if this round of protests will make any sort of impact as that incident did.
The movement's website dedicates the protest to the memory of Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz, who took his own life after being indicted for making copyrighted articles available for free.
Other parts of the movement include an effort to get memes on the subject shared across social media sites and a call for supporters to call their congressmen to voice their opinions.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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