July 2017

Access Now and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are among those signing onto an amicus brief supporting Facebook in its efforts to protect the anonymity of its users and alert them if they are under investigation. According to Access Now, the government, which is investigating Trump inauguration protests that turned violent, has requested that Facebook unmask the identities of three users under a gag order, which means the company can't tell the people in question about the warrants. "First, the non-disclosure order is both a prior restraint and a content-based restriction on speech and is therefore subject to the most demanding First Amendment scrutiny," the groups write. "Second, the underlying warrants are apparently calculated to invade the right of Facebook's users to speak and associate anonymously on a matter of public interest."

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) says only an outpouring of public opposition to proposed federal changes can save the internet from becoming an "information aristocracy." The Sen said that a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission — now led by an appointee of President Donald Trump — will end the principle of internet service providers treating all data the same, no matter who originates it, what the content is, or how it is delivered. "We are trying to create a citizen juggernaut so that politicians cannot look the other way," Sen Wyden said at the Friday Forum of the City Club of Portland, cosponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon. "I am telling you that citizen pressure really matters — and we have to have it now in the fight for net neutrality. It is a federal policy that embodies the Oregon way and gives everybody a fair shake."