March 11, 2015

In America, the Internet browses you. (Credit: Flickr/Light Brigading)

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com @BednarChuck

The Wikimedia Foundation, owners and operators of the popular crowd-edited reference website Wikipedia, has filed a lawsuit against the US National Security Agency (NSA) in response to the organizations surveillance program.

According to BBC News, the lawsuit also names the US Department of Justice and accuses the two groups of violating the Constitutions right to free speech, as well as laws protecting citizens of the United States from unreasonable search and seizure.

[STORY: Storing data offshore won't protect it from NSA]

In a blog entry posted Tuesday, Wikimedias Michelle Paulson and Geoff Brigham wrote that the lawsuit challenges the NSAs large-scale search and seizure of internet communications frequently referred to as upstream surveillance. Our aim in filing this suit is to end this mass surveillance program in order to protect the rights of our users around the world.

The Foundation has been joined by eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The Global Fund for Women, and The Rutherford Institute and the Washington Office on Latin America. Their case will be handled by attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

[STORY: Your smartphone may be an NSA surveillance tool]

Were filing suit today on behalf of our readers and editors everywhere, said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Surveillance erodes the original promise of the internet: an open space for collaboration and experimentation, and a place free from fear.

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Wikipedia suing NSA over spy program