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The nonprofit behind Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, is suing the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice over a government surveillance program. The suit challenges a program that collects databy tapping into the infrastructure, or backbone, the Web is built on.

"We are asking the court to order an end to the NSA's dragnet surveillance of Internet traffic," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wrote in a New York Times opinion piece about the suit.

The Justice Department spokesperson said the agency isreviewing the complaint. TheNSA did not immediately respond a request for comment about the suit.

The suit allegesthat the government has been tappinginto cables that are part of the Internet's infrastructure, a practice often called "Upstream" collection, which violates the First and Fourth Amendments, according to a blog post from Wikimedia.

Such programs have been targeted in other lawsuits,including the long-running Jewel v. NSA case, which was originallybased on documents from aAT&T technician in San Francisco.Some cases about government surveillance have either been thrown out or stalled after failing to prove they were specifically targetedby thegovernment surveillance programs.

But that may be less of an issue for Wikimedia, which has based its case largely on informationdisclosed byNSA contractor Edward Snowden. Some Snowden documentsappearedto showthat the government is tapping into cables that connect the United States to the rest of the online world. One government slide disclosed by Snowdensuggested that Wikipedia and its userswere targeted as part of government surveillance programs, the lawsuit alleges.

However, there may be other legal hurdles. Last month, Jewel v. NSA hit a significant roadblock when a federal judge sided with the government's state secret defense -- ruling that the plaintiffscould not win their challenge over NSA tapping of the Internet backbone without disclosing information that would harm national security.

The type and amount of data collected as part of these programs are unclear. But the data could reveal details about people's browsing history, scaring somefrom using the Internet freely, privacy advocates have argued.

By tapping the backbone of the internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy, Wikimedia Foundation executive director Lila Tretikov said in a blog post about the suit. Wikipedia is founded on the freedoms of expression, inquiry, and information. By violating our users privacy, the NSA is threatening the intellectual freedom that is central to peoples ability to create and understand knowledge.

The American Civil Liberties Union is representing plaintiffs inWikimedia v. NSA, a group that includesHuman Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Global Fund for Women, and The Nation Magazine among others.

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Wikipedia is suing the NSA over online spying

A coalition of groups, led by Wikimedia, wants an end to the NSA's mass surveillance programs.

The Wikimedia Foundation today filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency and Department of Justice, in an effort to end the NSA's mass surveillance programs.

Wikimedia and eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, filed suit in Maryland district court on Tuesday "on behalf of our readers and editors everywhere," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement. "Surveillance erodes the original promise of the Internet: an open space for collaboration and experimentation, and a place free from fear."

In a blog post written by Wikimedia legal counselors Michelle Paulson and Geoff Brigham, the foundation outlined the importance of privacy ("the bedrock of individual freedom") to the world and Wikipedia.

The NSA, according to Wikimedia, has misinterpreted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) to provide free rein to define threats, identify targets, and monitor people, platforms, and infrastructure, "with little regard for probably cause or proportionality," Paulson and Brigham said.

It violates the Constitution's First and Fourth Amendments, and unfairly allows the government agency to cast a wide net, often capturing communication unconnected to a real targetincluding transmissions by Wikipedia users and staff, the Foundation said.

"By tapping the backbone of the Internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy," added Lila Tretikov, executive director of Wikimedia.

That network of high-capacity cables, switches, and routers transferring Web traffic is facilitated by devices installed by Verizon, AT&T, and other organizations, the ACLU said.

In a separate blog post, the ACLU, which is representing Wikimedia, said the NSA intercepts and copies private communications in bulk, then searches the content using keywords associated with agency "targets." Those marks often include aliens believed to communicate "foreign intelligence information," or journalists, academic researchers, corporations, aid workers, business personnel, and other innocent people.

"Wikipedia is founded on the freedoms of expression, inquiry, and information," Tretikov said. "By violating our users' privacy, the NSA is threatening the intellectual freedom that is central to people's ability to create and understand knowledge."

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Wikimedia Sues NSA Over Surveillance

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Wikimedia and other organizations, ranging from the liberal Human Rights Watch to the conservative Rutherford Institute, against the National Security Agency (NSA) challenging the government's mass surveillance program.

The lawsuit centers on the NSA's controversial practice of "upstream surveillance," which is the capturing of broadly interpreted "foreign intelligence information" from non-U.S. citizens, as authorized by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA). According to a Wikimedia blog post, the program casts a wide net and "as a result, captures communications that are not connected to any 'target,' or may be entirely domestic. This includes communications by our users and staff."

"Upstream surveillance" was first revealed by Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst. The ACLU's lawsuit accuses the NSA and other government organizations of violating the First Amendment, which protects speech, and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unlawful search and seizure. Below is the ACLU's description of "upstream":

The NSA intercepts and copies private communications in bulk while they are in transit, and then searches their contents using tens of thousands of keywords associated with NSA targets. These targets, chosen by intelligence analysts, are never approved by any court, and the limitations that do exist are weak and riddled with exceptions. Under the FAA, the NSA may target any foreigner outside the United States believed likely to communicate "foreign intelligence information" -- a pool of potential targets so broad that it encompasses journalists, academic researchers, corporations, aid workers, business persons, and others who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales and executive director Lila Tretikov wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that they are standing up for the privacy rights of Wikipedia's 75,000-plus contributors -- many of whom wish to remain anonymous as they edit or write about topics that may be controversial where they live.

"These volunteers should be able to do their work without having to worry that the United States government is monitoring what they read and write," they said, later adding that "as a result [of upstream surveillance], whenever someone overseas views or edits a Wikipedia page, it's likely that the N.S.A. is tracking that activity -- including the content of what was read or typed, as well as other information that can be linked to the person's physical location and possible identity. These activities are sensitive and private: They can reveal everything from a person's political and religious beliefs to sexual orientation and medical conditions."

Wales and Tretikov added, "We are asking the court to order an end to the NSA's dragnet surveillance of internet traffic."

The U.S. Supreme Court denied the ACLU's 2013 challenge to the FAA because it said the lawsuit's parties (namely Amnesty International) lacked proof they had been spied on. The ACLU and Wikimedia believe this new case against the government will succeed because one of Snowden's leaked disclosures included a classified NSA slide that specifically referred to Wikipedia.

ACLU attorney Patrick Toomey told Politico that it was also relevant that "the plaintiffs in this case engage in hundreds of billions of international communications each year," and that it's "inconceivable that the NSA isn't copying and searching through."

Other defendants include NSA director Michael Rogers, National Intelligence director James Clapper and Attorney General Eric Holder. Wikimedia's partners in the lawsuit include The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Pen American Center, Global Fund for Women, The Nation Magazine, The Rutherford Institute, and Washington Office on Latin America.

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Wikimedia vs NSA: ACLU Files Lawsuit to End Spy Agency's 'Upstream Surveillance'

The U.S. National Security Agency was sued on Tuesday by Wikimedia and other groups challenging one of its mass surveillance programs that they said violates Americans' privacy and makes individuals worldwide less likely to share sensitive information.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, where the spy agency is based, said the NSA is violating U.S. constitutional protections and the law by tapping into high-capacity cables, switches and routers that move Internet traffic through the United States.

The case is a new potential legal front for privacy advocates who have challenged U.S. spying programs several times since 2013, when documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the long reach of government surveillance.

Other lawsuits have challenged the bulk collection of telephone metadata and are pending in U.S. appeals courts.

The litigation announced on Tuesday takes on what is often called "upstream" collection because it happens along the so-called backbone of the Internet and away from individual users.

Bulk collection there violates the constitution's First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and association, and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs include the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the conservative Rutherford Institute, Amnesty International USA and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, among other groups.

The groups said in the lawsuit that upstream surveillance "reduces the likelihood" that clients, journalists, foreign government officials, victims of human rights abuses and other individuals will share sensitive information with them.

Legal standing, which requires the organizations to show individual, particular harm, is the most significant obstacle for them, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at American University Washington College of Law.

While it might stand to reason that the plaintiffs' communications are being intercepted, they can only use legally public information, which the government has acknowledged or declassified, to show harm, Vladeck said. It is "not beyond the pale" that the government could make more information public while the lawsuit is pending, he said. For now, the lawsuit is a "longshot" according to Vladeck.

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Wikimedia sues NSA over mass surveillance

The Wikimedia Foundation argues that the NSA's full-scale seizure of Internet communications is a violation of its First and Fourth Amendment rights.

The NSA is in hot water yet again. Declan McCullagh/CNET

The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that operates the wildly popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, says user privacy has been violated and that it's going to court to try to fix it.

Wikimedia filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland against the National Security Agency and the US Department of Justice for allegedly violating its constitutional rights on Wikipedia. The organization argues that an NSA program collecting information wholesale across the Internet, known as upstream surveillance, is a violation of its First Amendment right of free speech and a violation of the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable search and seizure.

Wikimedia said it is joined by eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and represented by The American Civil Liberties Union. Wikimedia has been working on the lawsuit for "approximately one year," said its general counsel, Geoff Brigham.

"Privacy is the bedrock of individual freedom. It is a universal right that sustains the freedoms of expression and association," Wikimedia wrote Tuesday on its blog. "These principles enable inquiry, dialogue, and creation and are central to Wikimedia's vision of empowering everyone to share in the sum of all human knowledge. ... If people look over their shoulders before searching, pause before contributing to controversial articles, or refrain from sharing verifiable but unpopular information, Wikimedia and the world are poorer for it."

Wikipedia is the world's most comprehensive online encyclopedia. The service comprises editable wikis that allow users to correct misinformation and add details on individuals, events, organizations and ideas. More than 500 million people worldwide visit Wikipedia each month, and at least 75,000 people around the globe add or edit the content.

In 2013, one-time NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information revealing Wikipedia was a target of government surveillance. According to Snowden, the US government taps the Internet's "backbone" (the core data routes between large, interconnected network centers) to capture communication with "non-U.S. persons." Part of that surveillance is authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that Congress amended in 2008, which supports US spy agencies to collect Internet information at will. (A large component in the NSA's mission stems from a 1981 executive order that legalized surveillance of foreigners living outside the US.)

Since Snowden's leaks began, the US government has shied away from claims that it may be intercepting communications and information from Americans. FISA does not authorize spying on US citizens. The ACLU and Wikimedia believe surveillance agencies are violating that regulation.

"In the course of its surveillance, the NSA copies and combs through vast amounts of Internet traffic, which it intercepts inside the United States with the help of major telecommunications companies," the ACLU said in a statement on Tuesday. "It searches that traffic for keywords called 'selectors' that are associated with its targets. The surveillance involves the NSA's warrantless review of the emails and Internet activities of millions of ordinary Americans."

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Wikipedia parent sues to stop NSA's massive surveillance effort