Wikipedia is taking the National Security Agency to court.
Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization responsible for the free online encyclopedia, will file a lawsuit Tuesday over the NSA’s mass monitoring of Internet traffic in the U.S., Reuters reported.
“Today, we’re proud to bring this lawsuit alongside a coalition of organizations from across the ideological spectrum, including The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Pen American Center, Global Fund for Women, The Nation Magazine, The Rutherford Institute, and Washington Office on Latin America,” the organization wrote Tuesday on its Wikimedia blog. “We believe the wide variety of perspectives represented in this lawsuit demonstrates that the defense of privacy and freedom of expression and association is not defined by partisanship or ideology.”
Defendants in Wikimedia’s lawsuit include NSA Director Michael Rogers, Attorney General Eric Holder and James Clapper, director of National Intelligence.
“By tapping the backbone of the Internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy,” Lila Tretikov, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said in the organization’s statement.
Neither NSA nor the Justice Department immediately returned Reuters’ request for comment, which were made outside regular business hours.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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