The attack in the U.S. Capitol was horrific, but we can’t allow lawmakers to exploit it to push for policies that increase surveillance. These attacks were not an intelligence failure, and no amount of additional surveillance could have prevented them.

Increasing surveillance will not make us safer. Two decades after the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, there is almost no evidence to suggest that they have ever actually saved a single human life, but bulk collection and monitoring has had a documented chilling effect on freedom of expression.

We need to act quickly to make sure lawmakers do not put forth legislation to expand mass surveillance programs, increase funding for the FBI and law enforcement, install backdoors in encrypted messaging apps, pass a new domestic terrorism law, or arm police with more technology like facial recognition and social media monitoring software.

Lawmakers are having these conversations now, and we have a real opportunity to stop this bad legislation from moving forward. Sign the petition and tell your lawmakers not to expand surveillance programs in response to right-wing attacks.

Petition

To Lawmakers:

I am calling on you to not put forth any legislation that expands mass surveillance programs, arms law enforcement with more surveillance tech, or creates a domestic terrorism law. Increases government and law enforcement surveillance in response to the attack at the Capitol won’t make us safer, won’t stop attacks, and will have a lasting impact on our freedom of expression and rights, disproportionately harming Black and brown people, Muslims, immigrant communities, and social movements that effectively challenge systemic injustice and corporate power.

Instead of amping up government surveillance, you should act swiftly to protect us from infringements on our rights by:

— Passing the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act to ban facial recognition

— Passing Senator Wyden’s “The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act” as well as omnibus privacy legislation that stops companies like Facebook from harvesting people’s data and using it to micro-target hate and lies directly into the minds of people most susceptible to them.

— Opposing efforts to renew the USA PATRIOT Act

Please don’t exploit our fear to expand and supercharge oppressive institutions. Instead, let’s work together to dismantle them.

Signed,