We have the chance to reform an abusive
surveillance program.
Take action to shutdown
Trump’s surveillance machine.
Dear friend,
Our communities are no strangers to intrusive and harmful surveillance by the government. But if Trump and the FBI get their way, they will have unprecedented power to use advanced surveillance tools to harm our movements and communities.
Right now, Trump is pushing Congress to pass the USA Liberty Act, a bill that will extend legal loopholes in a surveillance authority called Section 702, which give Trump the power to spy on Americans without a warrant and secretly share that information with the FBI.
This surveillance serves not only to keep tabs on activists but also to deter them from pushing forward. Surveillance is a tool of fear. It is a tactic to reinforce White supremacy. Again and again, we’ve seen these agencies target activists of color for simply demanding an end to police violence.1 And with the recently leaked memo showing the FBI’s efforts to classify those who protest police violence as “Black Identity Extremists,” we can bet that the FBI will abuse this authority to silence Black voices.2
Under the FBI’s “Black Identity Extremist” classification, the FBI intentionally conflates Black political activists and organizers with dangerous domestic terrorist organizations that pose actual threats to law enforcement. By creating this made-up classification, the FBI will be able to more easily carry out warrantless surveillance and harassment of Black activists in a manner similar to the FBI’s Civil Rights era COINTELPRO. When combined with an unchecked Section 702, these programs will provide Trump and the FBI vastly expanded abilities to treat peaceful protests, vigils, and community organizing as national security threats.
Will you help us stop this from happening ?
Right now, the loopholes in Section 702 give Trump the power to spy on Americans without a warrant and then secretly share that information with the FBI. Without congressional action, Section 702 will expire at the end of the year. But Trump is demanding a reauthorization of its spying powers through the USA Liberty Act, but a growing bipartisan block of Congress is fighting for needed reforms to significantly rein in and limit this far-reaching surveillance power.
That’s why we’re calling on Congress to fundamentally fix the USA Liberty Act. It needs strong reforms to rein in Trump, the NSA, and FBI before anyone should support it.
Here’s why the USA Liberty Act needs to be fundamentally fixed. It currently :
- Doesn’t stop backdoor searches, which is when the government searches through electronic communications such as emails and texts for information without a warrant. In its current form, the USA Liberty Act would make it much easier for the FBI to get unconstitutional access to people’s communications.
- Fails to permanently end "about" collection, an illegal practice the NSA says they've stopped that allows for warrantless spying on Americans’ communications that merely mention an intelligence target.
- Doesn’t prevent the government from secretly using surveillance information in court against defendants.Despite tens of thousands of searches by the government of Section 702 data, only a handful of defendants have ever received notice of it – and only after the Department of Justice was caught misleading the Supreme Court about its practices.
Our communities know all too well the devastating ways state surveillance programs like this are used to harm and divide us. With an FBI that shows it is adamant about criminalizing Black protest and communities, we cannot afford for them to have access to secretive surveillance tools like Section 702. We must do whatever we can to push Congress to fundamentally fix Section 702 and keep broad and intrusive surveillance tools out of the hands of Trump and the FBI.
Until justice is real,
Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Johnny, Evan, Jade, Chad, Corina, and the rest of the Color Of Change team.
References :
1. "EXCLUSIVE : FEDS REGULARLY MONITORED BLACK LIVES MATTER SINCE FERGUSON," The Intercept, 24 July 2015.
2. "The FBI’s New U.S. Terrorist Threat : ‘Black Identity Extremists’," Foreign Policy, 06 October 2017.
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Help keep our movement strong.
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