Friend,

Making sure you saw Nora’s message yesterday! We are looking forward to an urgent and thoughtful discussion tomorrow. Here are the details:

• WHAT: Data and Dissent: Navigating Your Right to Protest Amid Government Surveillance
• WHEN: TOMORROW, May 16, at 1 p.m. ET
• WHERE: Zoom with us
• WHO: You, we hope!
• WHY: University students are engaging in a sweeping protest movement even as their calls for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza are met with violence and retaliation here in the United States.

This is too important to miss. Tune in tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you,

Jenna

P.S. Can’t make it? We’ll share the recording with you tomorrow!

Friend,

Freedom of expression and the ability for communities to join together in solidarity and action are essential tools for democracy. But far too often, these tactics face threats of repression and retaliation.

Like many of you, we at Free Press Action have been watching as a sweeping student protest movement calls for universities and the U.S. government to divest from weapons manufacturers and cease related financial support for Israel’s continued attacks on Palestinians.

Free Press Action is hosting a virtual briefing on Thurs., May 16, at 1 p.m. ET to break down the state of surveillance, protest rights and press freedom on university campuses. This discussion will be all too relevant in light of how both federal agencies and local law enforcement are violating people’s basic privacy rights.

Will you join us? RSVP and get all of the details now.

In the wake of these demonstrations, we are appalled by law enforcement’s use of force and the unprovoked targeting of journalists — especially first-on-the-scene student reporters — covering these demonstrations.

This is all happening against the backdrop of anti-free speech legislation introduced in state capitals, the proliferation of surveillance technologies and the recent expansion of a federal government authority to spy on activists.¹

Join us this week — Thurs., May 16, at 1 p.m. ET — to learn about how to protect your protest rights amid the threat of government surveillance. I’ll be moderating a discussion that includes Free Press Action’s very own Jenna Ruddock, reporter Dell Cameron of WIRED, Tiffany Roberts of the Southern Center for Human Rights and Julie Mao of Just Futures Law.

Will we see you on our call this Thursday? Please RSVP to let us know you’re coming.

Hope to connect with you then,

Nora and the rest of us at Free Press Action
freepress.net

1. “House Votes to Extend Government Spying Authority, Violating the Privacy Rights of Everyone in the United States and Americans Abroad,” Free Press Action, April 12, 2024