EFF needs your help to defend privacy and free speech online. Learn why you're crucial to the fight in this edition of campfire tales from our friends, The Encryptids. These cunning critters have come out of hiding to help us celebrate EFF’s summer membership drive for internet freedom.

Through EFF's 34th birthday on July 10, you can be a member for just $20 and receive 2 rare gifts (including a Bigfoot enamel pin!), and as a bonus new recurring monthly or annual donations get a free match! Join us today.

Today’s post comes from international vocal icon Banshee. She may not be a beast like many cryptids, but she is a *BEAST* when it comes to free speech and local activism...

-Aaron Jue
EFF Membership Team

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W

hat’s that saying about being well behaved and making history? Most people picture me shrieking across the Irish countryside. It's a living, but my voice has real power: it can help me speak truth to power, and it can lend support to the people in my communities.

Free expression is a human right, full stop. And it’s tough to get it right on the internet. Just look at messy content moderation from social media giants. Or the way politicians, celebrities, and companies abuse copyright and trademark law to knock their critics offline. And don’t get me started on repressive governments cutting the internet during protests. Censorship hits disempowered groups the hardest. That’s why I raise my voice to prop up the people around me, and why EFF is such an important ally in the fight to protect speech in the modern world.

Free expression is a human right, full stop.

The things you create, say, and share can change the world, and there’s never been a better megaphone than the internet. A free web carries your voice whether your cause is the environment, workers’ rights, gender equality, or your local parent-teacher group. For all the sewage that people spew online, we must fight back with better ideas and a brighter vision for the future.

EFF’s lawyers, policy analysts, tech experts, and activists know free speech, creativity, and privacy online better than anyone. Hell, EFF even helped establish computer code as legally protected speech back in the 90s. I hope you’ll use your compassion to protect our freedom online with even a small donation to EFF (or even start a monthly donation!).

Join EFF

Free expression is a human right

So the next time someone tells you that you’re being shrill, remind him to STFU because you have something to say. And be grateful that people around the world support EFF to protect our rights online.

Down for the Cause,

Banshee

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