Mass surveillance and democracy are like oil and water: They just don’t mix.

Millions agree. And already close to 220,000 people have joined the movement at StopWatching.Us to urge Congress to investigate the National Security Agency’s spying programs.

But it will take more than this to move Congress. So this week the StopWatching.Us coalition — including our friends the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future and Mozilla — is turning it up a notch: We’re urging everyone to call Congress and demand some answers.

Fight for the Future has built a tool that will connect you directly with your members of Congress. Just dial 1-STOP-323-NSA or head to this call page to get instructions on how you can tell Congress to investigate the NSA’s overreaching surveillance schemes.

Since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden stepped forward, more stories have emerged about the agency’s broad “hoovering” of our data. Some sources say the NSA is capturing every bit of data about our phone calls and online communications and allowing analysts to search through it all, with at least one ex-NSA analyst claiming that all “textual material” online — pretty much everything — is “easy to get.”

These details raise more questions than they answer. Exactly how widespread is this surveillance? What is the NSA doing with our data and communications? What is the role of telecoms like AT&T and Verizon and Internet companies like Facebook and Google in all of this? And most importantly — is the U.S. still a true democracy if it’s home to the kind of surveillance apparatus that would have given Orwell nightmares?

“But I have nothing to hide. I’m not doing anything wrong.” I’m sure you’ve heard this argument before or even made it yourself. But this kind of epic data dragnet has ensnared innocent individuals before, and their lives have been ruined. Mass surveillance closes open societies: It makes us less free, it makes it harder for the press to uncover the truth and it makes it harder for us to make informed decisions about how to govern our lives. 

So we need some answers from the nation’s spying establishment. Only a congressional investigation will force a secretive spy agency like the NSA to open up. So take a moment to call 1-STOP-323-NSA or go to this call page to urge Congress to dig up the truth.