Dear HN,

Two years ago you joined in fighting back against dangerous Internet censorship legislation during the SOPA protests. You blacked out your websites, lobbied your employers to do the same, and started creative campaigns to defeat a threat to freedom on the Internet.

As was often the case, Aaron Swartz said it best: “[We defeated SOPA] because everyone made themselves the hero of their own story.” [1]

In the last 6 months it’s been revealed that government agencies, like the NSA and GCHQ, have twisted laws to create the legal and technical infrastructure for mass surveillance. Surveillance precipitates a dark form of censorship: people become afraid to speak freely. It undermines our security and restricts our ability to communicate privately.

With SOPA we had a clear goal: defeat a specific bill. In this case, we have promising bills (like the USA Freedom Act) and terrible ones (the FISA Improvements Act). But if progress is to be made, we need to send a message to our legislators that we won’t let the Internet be turned into a tool for mass surveillance. We need to push them to have the courage to support comprehensive reform.

Today, on the eve of the anniversary of Aaron’s death, we’d like to ask you to step up once again in defense of a free, open and secure Internet. In memory of Aaron, we’d ask that you to join us in a month of activism, culminating in a day of action on February 11th.

Our organizations—Demand Progress, EFF, and others—will be doing everything we can. We’re creating a banner that sites can add on the day and built a campaign website [2]. But for this to be a real success, each of us must again be the hero of their own story.

Will you join us?

Rainey Reitman, Activism Director, EFF

David Segal, Co-founder, Demand Progress

Cory Doctorow, Co-editor of Boing Boing

[1] http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/14/freedom_to_connect_aaron_swartz_1986

[2] https://thedaywefightback.org