The Day We Fight Back

Overview

The Day We Fight Back is an upcoming online protest against the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Internet surveillance programs scheduled to take place on February 11th, 2014. Participants will be placing banner images on websites to encourage viewers to contact their representatives about the importance of Internet privacy and to urge United States lawmakers to pass the USA Freedom Act to restrict telephone data collection.

Background

On January 10th, 2014, TheDayWeFightBack^[4] website was launched, which provides instructions on how to participate in the Internet-wide protest on February 11th. The event was organized by former Democratic congressman and executive director of the Internet activism organization Demand Progress David Segal.

The event was organized by former U.S. congressman and executive director of the Internet activist group Demand Progress David Segal and formally announced on January 10th, 2014, coinciding with the one year anniversary of Internet activist Aaron Swartz. That day, the official website for The Day We Fight Back^[4] was launched with detailed instructions on how to participate in the Internet-wide protest, as well as a promotional video featuring footage of Swartz speaking about the dangers of government surveillance (shown below).

Notable Developments

Mobilization

Immediately following the announcement, the /r/thedaywefightback^[3] subreddit was launched as a discussion forum for the upcoming protest, while Segal and a group of other activists, including Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, Peter Eckersley and Sina Khanifar, participated in an “ask me anything” thread on the /r/IAmA^[6] subreddit to promote the event. Within one month, the AMA post garnered upwards of 14,300 up votes and 1,100 comments. Throughout that week of January, a number of other well-known Internet tech companies joined the call to action, including Reddit, Mozilla, Free Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and BoingBoing.

News Media Coverage

On January 14th, the IBI Times^[5] published an article about the event, noting that several large Internet companies had pledged to participate in the protests. On February 6th, The Guardian^[7] reported that the protest had been backed by a diverse group of organizations outside of Internet activism, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative organization FreedomWorks.