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Dear Friend,
The House of Representatives is on the verge of passing a bill that could allow the Trump administration to spy on Americans' web browsing history without a warrant.
Demand Progress activists forced the House to consider language blocking Trump from abusing our web history—but we have only hours to make sure it’s included in the final bill.
We’re leading a broad, bipartisan coalition of organizations and businesses fighting to pass an amendment to block Trump and future presidents from spying on our internet browsing history—and the key vote could happen as soon as tomorrow. Will you donate $5?
Here’s the situation: Right now, Congress is debating reauthorization of the Patriot Act, the notorious law passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that allowed sweeping violations of our personal privacy.1
Now Trump not only wants the law renewed—he wants to make sure it can be used to spy on your internet browsing history without a warrant.
The government can figure out someone’s most private and personal secrets by looking at their interest browsing and search history. Your health problems, political beliefs, financial issues—all of it would be an open book to the government if they get access to your internet browsing history.
Just think what the Trump administration would do if it could gain access to the internet browsing history of his political opponents. He’s already used the power of his office to try to blackmail a foreign government into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. That’s why he was impeached.
The Trump administration could build an enemies list of activists working against his reelection, information that could make every one of us a target for harassment and persecution by the federal government. It’s happened before: The FBI has a long, ugly history of targeting people of color and progressive activists.
We’re confident that we have the votes to pass the amendment blocking internet browser spying—but Congressional leaders might block the strong ban on spying that we need to protect our privacy.2 Democrats as well as Republicans have often sided with the intelligence community over privacy advocates, and we can’t count on them to do the right thing unless they feel major public pressure.
Our broad coalition represents the entire political spectrum and even includes Twitter and Reddit.3 The Patriot Act is expected to come up in the House this week, so we need your help to turn up the heat right now.
Thank you for taking action in this urgent moment.
David Segal,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. The Hill, "House to consider amendment blocking warrantless web browsing surveillance," May 22, 2020
2. Ibid.
3. Demand Progress, "Support Grows for Speaker Pelosi to Back PATRIOT Act Amendment," May 22, 2020
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