The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce two updates to Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA, our lawsuit challenging the United States National Security Agency’s “Upstream” mass surveillance.
First, today we have released a new landing page for Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA. This page will serve as a centralized resource for members of our communities and the general public who are interested in learning more about the case, as well as about government surveillance more broadly. Among other things, the page contains links to Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA court documents and informative blog posts; a timeline for the case, including future filing and hearing dates as these become available; helpful English Wikipedia articles about government surveillance; information about HTTPS access to the projects and online security; and social media action items for anybody who would like to help spread the word. As the case progresses, we intend to add even more interesting and useful resources to the page, and ways for you to stay engaged in our efforts.
Additionally, the lawsuit itself continues to move forward. Following the dismissal of our claims by Judge T.S. Ellis, III on October 23, 2015, we filed an appeal in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 17 of this year. Today, the government filed their response to our opening appeal brief. We are reviewing their arguments and look forward to preparing our reply in concert with our pro bono counsel at the ACLU. The reply is due May 6, and oral arguments will likely take place in early fall.
The Wikimedia projects cannot flourish unless the privacy and free expression rights of the user communities are protected. This lawsuit is a part of the Foundation’s commitment to those principles. We will continue to keep our communities informed about the case, through blog posts and updates to the new landing page, and invite you to share this page with your friends and colleagues who share these values.
Jim Buatti, Legal Fellow
Aeryn Palmer, Legal Counsel
Greg Varnum, Communications Strategist
Joe Sutherland, Communications Fellow
Wikimedia Foundation
Special thanks to all who have supported us in this litigation, including the ACLU’s Patrick Toomey, Jameel Jaffer, Alex Abdo, and Ashley Gorski; and Aarti Reddy, Patrick Gunn, and Ben Kleine of our pro bono counsel Cooley, LLP; and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Geoff Brigham, Michelle Paulson, Stephen LaPorte, Juliet Barbara, Jeff Elder, Ed Erhart, and the entire communications team.
