Wikipedia to Sue NSA Over Surveillance

The Wikipedia Foundation will file suit against the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that the NSA’s Upstream surveillance, a form of mass monitoring of Internet traffic, violates the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech and the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The Wikipedia Foundation filed the suit jointly with eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch. The ACLU will represent them. “By tapping the backbone of the Internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy,” Wikipedia Foundation Executive Director Lila Tretikov said in a blog post. “By violating our users’ privacy, the NSA is threatening the intellectual freedom that is central to people’s ability to create and understand knowledge.”