Say NO To Mass Surveillance

I love the internet. I love technology. I love the way that the Internet has revolutionised so many aspects of our daily lives. Before the advent of the Internet it would have been a lot harder for a small Irish company, such as ourselves, to succeed on an international stage.

Unfortunately, unless you’ve been hiding over the last year, you’ll know that the Internet is increasingly under attack with governments snooping on users every action. Privacy for many in government appears to be almost a dirty word. This is fundamentally wrong.

Online business relies on a stable and secure DNS system to work. If users cannot navigate and use the internet (legally) without being spied on then they will lose confidence in it. Without confidence in the system how can online business grow?

In 2012 the global Internet community came together to protest online against SOPA. Now in 2014 we’re joining with thousands of other companies, users and websites to protest against mass surveillance.

See our press release below:

 

Blacknight Participates in The Day We Fight Back Leading Irish domain registrar and hosting company stands with Internet companies worldwide to fight mass surveillance

Blacknight joins Internet companies worldwide to protest mass surveillance on February 11, 2014 “The Day We Fight Back.”

On February 11, 2014, when visitors arrive at the Blacknight.com site, they will be greeted with a banner informing them that “Today We Fight Back”. The Banner will read “Dear Internet we are sick of complaining about the NSA. We want new laws that curtail online surveillance”. It will also provide the option to sign the petition in support of The Principals Against Mass Surveillance by entering their name, email address and nationality.

Blacknight will be joining thousands of online companies across the globe in standing up against warrantless, rampant online surveillance. Among the companies and websites participating are Reddit, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla, Amnesty International and Boing Boing.

Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon states: “Mass surveillance is an issue that has an impact on every single Internet user worldwide. As a community, we have a right to expect a reasonable amount of privacy online. Unless we all stand together and say: “no, we do not ‘opt in’ for mass surveillance”, we will continue down a very dark and irreversible path. We encourage customers and visitors to our site to sign the petition and join us in doing our part to protect our online freedoms.”

Individual websites may participate in the protest by using a WordPress plugin banner (the same that Blacknight will use) that will appear on their homepage at 12:00 am EST on February 11, 2014. As WordPress sites are so prevalent, throughout the Internet installing the plugin can make a huge difference.

The Thedaywefightback.org website states: “In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. Today we face another critical threat, one that again undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance. In celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA two years ago, and in memory of one of its leaders, Aaron Swartz, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.” The message continues: “Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action. Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance. Together, if we persist, we will win this fight.”

The banner will change based on the nationality of the visitor to reflect the privacy issues of the visitor’s country. Blacknight encourages everyone who is able to visit their homepage http://www.blacknight.com on February 11, 2014 and sign the petition in support of The Principles Against Mass Surveillance.

The WordPress plugin can be obtained via github at https://github.com/modemlooper/thedaywefightback.wp

For more information on The Day We Fight Back, please visit http://www.thedaywefightback.org