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, instead.

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.