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 Principles 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 or by simply embedding some Javascript on their site. The banner 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 visitors country. Blacknight encourages everyone who is able to visit their homepage http://www.blacknight.com or blog http://blog.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
About Blacknight
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting services and domain name registration services to business globally. IP transit services and other solutions for more demanding business and academic customers are offered a la carte. Fibre broadband services for both business and domestic users are also available throughout most of Ireland.