Rep. Raskin Warns of Alarming Government Overreach and Big Tech Coziness

FISA Section 702 and Civil Liberties

• ⚠️ Section 702 of FISA is set to expire on April 19th, requiring Congress to act within four months to protect Americans' fundamental constitutional rights while preserving national security.
• 🤝 Bipartisan collaboration on FISA has historically been strong, with efforts to protect American civil liberties.
• 📈 The FBI's promise of modest changes to prevent violations of civil liberties has resulted in an alarming increase in government surveillance.

Abuse of US Person Data

• 🚫 Section 702 was not intended for American citizens, who are protected by the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement for searches.
• 📂 However, American citizens' communications are often swept into 702 collection and stored in the FBI's database, which can be searched for evidence of crimes or threats.
• 🎯 Recent audits reveal the FBI has searched this database for candidates for federal office, Black Lives Matter protesters, and federal contractors.

Government and Big Tech Collaboration

• 🤖 There is an alarming coziness between the government and big tech, putting Americans' data and civil liberties in jeopardy.
• 📊 The current administration is actively building profiles on American citizens by combining data from various agencies and purchasing information from tech companies.
• 🔒 This breakdown of privacy guardrails enables the executive branch to track the movements of dissenters and supporters alike.

Call for Stronger Privacy Laws

• ⚖️ Congress must strengthen federal law to protect American privacy and liberty, starting with FISA Section 702.
• 💡 The two-year experiment to ensure civil liberties without greater judicial oversight has yielded alarming results, necessitating legislative defense of constitutional liberties.