Yesterday the House rushed through a vote on CISPA — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

CISPA supporters in the House were so rattled by mounting opposition to their creepy bill — more than 1 million people told them to ditch it — that they passed the legislation before our outcry could spread.

CISPA may not have survived another day on the Hill. Even with a hurried vote, 168 members voted “no,” and formerly staunch supporters were starting to respond to the public opposition and defect. The constant pressure from opponents was working.

Go here to view a list of members who voted against CISPA. You may want to thank them (on Facebook or Twitter, for example) for standing up for our online freedom.

As the focus now moves to the Senate, it’s essential that we stop anything that looks like CISPA from moving forward.
Here’s what the next few months will look like:

• The fight moves to the Senate. The Senate will soon take up its own cybersecurity legislation. We will need to shut down any bill that compromises our civil liberties and threatens our right to communicate online.
• We keep the pressure on the White House. President Obama has already pledged to veto any bill with CISPA-like threats to our privacy. We must hold his administration accountable in case a version of CISPA makes it to his desk.

We’ll need all hands on deck to stop this relentless push to enact a new regime of online spying. And we’ll need you to help us spread the word and build public opposition to this outrageous legislation.

As Ben Franklin might say ... he who sacrifices online freedom for cybersecurity deserves neither. Please stay with us as we continue this important fight.

If you care about preserving our online rights, please consider a donation to the Free Press Action Fund. Thank you.