Restore the Fourth Underscores Threat to Digital Rights in Feature Appearance on Cybersecurity Podcast

Posted on June 29, 2021

In the most recent episode of the Open Source Security Podcast, Chris Weiland of Restore the Fourth Minnesota makes a compelling case for the need for civil liberties organizations to take the fight for Americans’ constitutional freedoms to digital spaces. Although the podcast primarily focuses on subjects in information security (colloquially referred to as “cybersecurity”), hosts Josh Bressers and Kurt Seifried dedicated the entire episode to interviewing Weiland on the work of Restore the Fourth’s Minnesota chapter, and that of civil libertarians to preserve constitutional rights in digital spaces generally.

Restore the Fourth Minnesota, which is a CCDBR partner organization through the EFF’s Electronic Frontier Alliance, has played a role in scoring a number of significant victories. The organization backed a newly passed ordinance banning the city of Minneapolis from using facial recognition software. Additionally, the organization successfully defeated a push to increase funding to Minnesota fusion centers, which are notorious for funneling federal surveillance data down to local law enforcement.

However, the most significant contribution Weiland made in his interview was in outlining concrete steps that Americans can take to help safeguard their constitutional rights. For instance, he compared and contrasted forming a new organization with joining an established one, and underscored the importance of meeting with elected representatives face-to-face and presenting facts that are easy to digest. On the whole, this short episode serves as a useful jumping-off point for Americans who are unfamiliar with, but interested in, taking up civic engagement in defense of their rights–it succinctly captures not only why they should help, but exactly how.

With precisely this purpose in mind, we have added this episode to our Resources page for future reference.

You can listen to the Open Source Security Podcast episode here.