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Court dimisses Wikimedia's lawsuit against NSA surveillance
Oct 25, 2015 11:44 pm
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Boing Boing reports that Wikimedia's case against the NSA was dismissed by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, saying they couldn't prove the National Security Agency was intercepting data between Wikipedia and its users. Wikimedia never got to challenge the legality of United States government surveillance, and instead fought over standing in the case. Judge Ellis wrote that, "plaintiffs insist that Wikipedia's over one trillion annual Internet communications is significant in volume... but size is always relative. For example, one trillion dollars are of enormous value, whereas one trillion grains of sand are but a small patch of beach." Ellis reasoned that the only people who could challenge NSA surveillance would be those told by the government they were being spied upon. Just because media reports that the government is culling through millions of metadata points, doesn't prove that some of that metadata was Wikimedia's. The American Civil Liberties Union represents Wikimedia in the case, and said, "There’s no question that the NSA is capturing and searching through their communications. That’s something the court — and everyone else — should find extremely disconcerting."
Boing Boing reports that Wikimedia's case against the NSA was dismissed by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, saying they couldn't prove the National Security Agency was intercepting data between Wikipedia and its users. Wikimedia never got to challenge the legality of United States government surveillance, and instead fought over standing in the case. Judge Ellis wrote that, "plaintiffs insist that Wikipedia's over one trillion annual Internet communications is significant in volume... but size is always relative. For example, one trillion dollars are of enormous value, whereas one trillion grains of sand are but a small patch of beach." Ellis reasoned that the only people who could challenge NSA surveillance would be those told by the government they were being spied upon. Just because media reports that the government is culling through millions of metadata points, doesn't prove that some of that metadata was Wikimedia's. The American Civil Liberties Union represents Wikimedia in the case, and said, "There’s no question that the NSA is capturing and searching through their communications. That’s something the court — and everyone else — should find extremely disconcerting."