The Snowden documents stolen from the National Security Agency have revealed that the U.S. and U.K. pressured WikiLeaks and other groups through surveillance and legal actions. The campaign included actions against the file-sharing Pirate Bay and such groups as Anonymous. (The Intercept, February 18, 2014, by Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher)
The American Civil Liberties Union called the revelations “troubling.” “Publishers who disclose abuses of government power should not be subjected to invasive surveillance for having done so, and individuals should not be swept up into surveillance dragnets simply because they’ve visited websites that report on those abuses. Further, the United States should not be urging allied countries to pursue prosecutions that would be unconstitutional if undertaken here at home,” wrote Jameel Jaffer, ACLU director, February 18, 2014 in a press release.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation found indications that the U.S. had lobbied allies to file criminal charges against Julian Assange disturbing, “…instead of honoring the American tradition (and law protecting) of freedom of speech, the US government is engaging in forum shopping, trying to get countries with less speech-protective laws to engage in prosecutions that would violate the Constitution if they were tried here.” (Electronic Freedom Foundation, February 19, 2014, by Rainey Reitman)