Though many Facebook critics believe the site helps the government spy on its users, the social media giant took a strong stand against online surveillance this week.

The site, along with other big tech companies like Google, Apple and Twitter, opposed the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a piece of legislation that the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on later this week. The bill intends to protect citizens from hackers, but its critics say it could make it easier for the NSA to spy on users.

Facebook and the other tech companies it joined in opposing the bill wrote a statement through the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). Though the group acknowledged the possible usefulness of companies working together with the government to protect users, they said that the current bill was not up to snuff.

“Such a system should not come at the expense of users’ privacy, need not be used for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity, and must not enable activities that might actively destabilize the infrastructure the bill aims to protect,” they wrote.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) consumer watchdog group came out with even stronger words against the legislation, saying “It also gives companies broad immunity to spy on — and potentially even launch counter measures against — innocent users.”

If you want to do your part to oppose the bill, you can drop a line to your local lawmakers through the EFF site here.

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