Thread by @fightfortheftr

Today, we #Remember911. In 2001, the US experienced one of the greatest tragedies our nation's history. We mourn those who were lost, & we honor the heroic first responders who risked their health & safety to serve the American people.

But we also need to remember the fallout.

Six weeks after 9/11, Congress passed the #PATRIOTAct before lawmakers even had time to read the bill. Unfortunately, this new law extended government spy powers to allow data collection on everyone in the US - no probable cause or warrant required.
aclu.org/issues/nationa…

For years, government officials told the public that the PATRIOT Act was an important law that helped America’s intelligence agencies fight dangerous terrorists overseas. But they were lying to us. They were even lying to Congress. businessinsider.com/james-clapper-…

In reality, the PATRIOT Act was being used to secretly spy on hundreds of millions of people across the country. Telephone calls, text messages, internet activity … nearly every kind of digital communication was being collected.
bbc.com/news/world-us-…

Thankfully, an NSA contractor named @Snowden exposed the government’s secret surveillance programs to the public, which led US courts to declare that much of the data collection being performed under the PATRIOT Act was illegal & even unconstitutional. nbcnews.com/id/20999950/ns…

When the government’s own internal oversight boards investigated these secret surveillance programs, they discovered that all this spying failed to prevent even a single terrorist attack. But that didn’t stop the government from continuing to spy on us. vox.com/2015/6/2/87014…

During this summer's historic uprising for racial justice, government officials claimed that #BlackLivesMatter and antifascist activists are terrorists in order to justify spying on them - but all of the evidence available indicates that these are lies. theintercept.com/2019/04/08/bla…

This year, privacy hawks on both sides of the aisle have tried to amend the PATRIOT Act to prevent the government from collecting information about what websites you visit and what YouTube videos you watch without getting a warrant. politico.com/news/2020/05/1…

But despite the Trump administration's targeting of protesters based on political ideology and other abuses of authority, powerful politicians on both sides of the aisle have done everything they can to destroy these efforts to reform the PATRIOT Act. commondreams.org/news/2020/05/2…

Many in Congress are fed up with the lies & obfuscations being used to hurt the people they represent, but they're afraid of blowback for opposing the reauthorization. Voter calls & emails in favor of reform gives them the political cover they need to stand up to authoritarians.

19 years ago, the world changed forever. Our nation's response was extreme, but at the time it seemed justified. Now we have exhaustive evidence that PATRIOT Act is primarily a tool of oppression. Tell Congress to #StopThePATRIOTAct reauthorization: stopthepatriotact.org