The Day We Fight Back banner
Today, websites like Tumblr, Reddit and Mozilla and thousands of others are taking part in a day of online protest against the NSA spying revelations as part of ‘The Day We Fight Back’.
People visiting these sites will notice that a large portion of the homepage will feature a notification of protest against what they see as increasing intrusion by the US government into people’s right to browse the internet freely.
At the time of its statement on the Day We Fight Back website, the group advised users of these websites that: “Owners of websites will install banners to encourage their visitors to fight back against surveillance, and employees of technology companies will demand that their organisations do the same. Internet users are being asked to develop memes and change their social media avatars to reflect their demands.”
The site also asks users to submit their signatures as part of a petition to establish the 13 human rights of privacy online with the number of signatures recorded at the time of writing at just under 125,000.
Demand Progress is the organisation advocating for internet privacy, which was founded by Aaron Swartz, an online activist who was found hanged in his apartment on 11 January 2013. Executive director David Segal said today’s action is a fitting tribute: “Today the greatest threat to a free Internet, and broader free society, is the National Security Agency’s mass spying regime.
“If Aaron were alive he’d be on the front lines, fighting back against these practices that undermine our ability to engage with each other as genuinely free human beings.”
