Wikimedia chucks sueball at NSA and DOJ over mass surveillance

Digital rights folks queue to join Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales' Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, has announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) challenging dragnet spying programs such as PRISM.

In a press release the foundation stated its "aim in filing this suit is to end this mass surveillance program in order to protect the rights of our users around the world."

They are joined by eight other organisations “from across the ideological spectrum”, including:

• 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
• The Washington Office on Latin America

Jimbo's merry men are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Wales & Co. are not alone in bringing a suit against the NSA. Since 2008 the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been trying to stop the NSA (through the legal case Jewel v. NSA) from collecting, in indiscriminate dragnet fashion, the communications data of AT&T customers. ®