Apple vs FBI Protest: Apple Store Rallies Planned In More Than 30 Cities To Protest FBI’s Demands

Privacy advocates are standing up in Apple’s fight against the FBI. At Apple stores in more than 30 cities worldwide Tuesday, protesters are planning to rally in support of Apple’s decision not to break into the phone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. Apple publicly opposed the call by the FBI Wednesday and has since been tossed into a stand-off between Silicon Valley and Washington.

Fight for the Future, a group that works to defend the Internet as a free and open system and has campaigned for net neutrality and online privacy, are coordinating the protests across the world, the organization announced Saturday. The current list of protests can be viewed at DontBreakOurPhones.org.

Events are planned in Hong Kong, Munich, Britain and throughout the United States, including in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and Palo Alto, California. Members of Fight for the Future in Washington will gather at FBI headquarters.

“People are rallying at Apple stores because what the FBI is demanding here will make all of us less safe, not more safe,” Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, said in a statement. “Their unconstitutional attack on our digital security could put millions of people in danger, so we’re giving those people a way to get their voices heard.”

The protesters plan to carry 10-foot banners and iPhone-shaped signs that read “FBI: Don’t Break Our Phones” and “Secure Phones Save Lives.” The coordinators also are encouraging people to turn their smartphones, laptops and tablets into protest signs, a press release said.

On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook released a statement against the FBI’s demands to access the contents of the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two shooters in the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino.

In the day following the motion, other leaders in Silicon Valley took Cook’s side by issuing public statements on Facebook and Twitter. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, along with Facebook, WhatsApp and Mozilla all have come out in support of Cook’s decision.

Even so, the U.S Justice Department filed a motion Friday to compel the tech giant to comply with court orders.