Crazy how 160 years later “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free” is still the hardest lyric of all time

The NSA used Section 702 to unmask at least 31,000 U.S. identities last year – almost 3 times the year before. Our intelligence agencies will continue to exploit this program until we establish strict guardrails and mandate a warrant requirement.

MEGA🧵 The U.S. House has passed a bill that would deem certain viewpoints as antisemitic discrimination in the Civil Rights Act, no doubt to crack down on campus protests.

But Europe’s experience with similar laws shows why this would be a mistake. apnews.com/article/israel…

Today the Brennan Center & Data for Black Lives published internal police docs (~750k pages) detailing extensive social media surveillance by Washington DC police (MPD) targeting peaceful protesters and communities of color. brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

Today we sent an open letter to college and university presidents across the nation outlining five basic guardrails to ensure freedom of speech and academic freedom while protecting against discriminatory harassment and disruptive conduct.

Read more: aclu.org/news/free-spee…

A Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board can help provide oversight to protect individual liberties as national security agencies race to adopt AI. Here's how it could work from Faiza Patel & Patrick Toomey: justsecurity.org/94999/an-overs…

EXCLUSIVE: The ACLU is suing the NSA, DoD and ODNI for records about how they're using AI in their surveillance programs.
news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-da…

33 FISA Flip Flops: Below are 33 Senators who changed their vote on a key privacy measure during last week’s FISA 702 vote, opposing an amendment they previously voted FOR in 2020
Here’s a background on the issue, and what these votes flips may mean for the future of FISA reform

In today’s Brennan Center Briefing newsletter, I discuss the bill Congress passed last weekend to reauthorize and expand FISA Section 702 without reforms to protect Americans’ privacy—and why positive changes to the law could be on the horizon.👇

brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…

On Friday, the Senate passed RISAA, H.R. 7888, which reauths & expands FISA Section 702 for 2 yrs. In doing so, the Senate rejected privacy amendments, including amendments to close the backdoor search and data broker loopholes. (1/2)

theverge.com/2024/4/18/2413…

Twitter is blocked in China.

It’s disappointing, but it’s hard to ignore the incredible fight for reform waged by a large coalition of very dedicated civil liberties activists, attorneys, lobbyists, etc.

It’s over (for now). A majority of senators caved to the fearmongering and bush league tactics of the administration and surveillance hawks in Congress, and they sold out Americans’ civil liberties. Section 702 has been reauthorized, not just without any meaningful reforms… 1/10

The Senate passed the bill to reauthorize FISA Section 702, without amendment, by a vote of 60-33.

Incredibly disappointing result. I'll have more thoughts later. For now, I'm going to get some sleep.

Our initial statement on the final passage of the FISA Section 702 reauthorization bill, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), that has now passed both the House and the Senate. It now goes to POTUS. Our full statement will be released in the coming days.