🗣 A Victory for Freedom of Speech Online | EFFector 38.18
The Electronic Frontier Foundation secured a court win in its lawsuit challenging a government surveillance program called 'Catch and Revoke,' which EFF says was designed to monitor and penalize people for criticism of the government expressed online.
Why this matters: A program built to track what millions of people say about the government online is the kind of thing that changes behavior before anyone is ever punished. That is the point. If people think speech can cost them immigration status, a visa, or some other government benefit, many will just go quiet. A court pushing back on that is meaningful. The First Amendment is supposed to protect criticism of the government more than almost anything else. A surveillance program that targets exactly that kind of speech is a direct test of whether that protection is real.
Who should care: Lawyers · Privacy officers · Compliance · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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