BREAKING: Hillary Clinton says she does not support the TPP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2015

Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org

Fight for the Future praises presidential candidates who oppose this secretive deal that undermines Internet openness and free speech

Today, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in an interview on PBS NewsHour that, based on what she knows of the agreement, she does not support the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Fight for the Future, a leading digital rights group that has opposed the deal, issued the following statement, which can be attributed to campaign director Evan Greer:

“The fact that Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump are all standing up to oppose this deal should tell you something: it’s supremely unpopular among American voters. And with good reason: the TPP poses a grave threat to the most basic aspects of our democratic process.

Based on what we know from leaked drafts, the TPP would export the United States’ broken copyright system to the rest of the world without expanding protections for free speech, potentially leading to widespread abuse and Internet censorship. It would undermine protections for whistleblowers and access to affordable medicine. It’s nothing short of a laundry list of attacks on our most basic rights and freedoms.

It’s not hard for the average U.S. voter to see that the TPP is a bad deal for them, so it’s becoming increasingly hard for any presidential candidate who expects to be elected to stay aboard this sinking ship.”

Fight for the Future is a digital rights nonprofit that has driven more than 130,000 emails and more than 15,000 phone calls to Congress in recent months, rallied more than 7,500 websites for an online protest, and helped coordinate a letter to Congress from more than 250 tech companies expressing transparency and tech related concerns about Fast Track legislation.

The group made headlines in March when they flew a 30’ blimp over several of Senator Ron Wyden’s town hall meetings calling for him to “Save the Internet” by opposing Fast Track for the TPP, and then parked a Jumbotron on capitol hill to display the viral video they made about the stunt. More recently, Fight for the Future made a splash on the hill when they delivered actual rubber stamps to every house Republican’s office with a mock letter from President Obama asking Congress to “please rubber stamp my secret trade agenda.

Fight for the Future works to defend the Internet as a free and open platform for expression and creativity, and is best known for their role organizing the massive online protests against SOPA, the Internet Slowdown for net neutrality, and the Reset The Net campaign for online privacy, which was endorsed by Edward Snowden.

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