unless I am confusing it with another petition thing?

Yes. Obama had a petition thing directly on the Whitehouse website, and he would respond to those that got enough signatures. Trump obviously deleted it.

My general opinion of change.org is that it’s just a placebo for people to feel like they’re doing something productive when they should be calling their relevant political representatives.

However, since the IA appears to have started this petition themselves, I agree with the other commenter that…

if the IA want these signatures, perhaps they need them.