Facebook Petition Against Web Snooping

A Facebook petition has recently been launched to protest online snooping legislation suggested by the authorities, which aimed at bombarding Home Secretary Theresa May with tons of irrelevant emails.

The group named “National cc your emails to Theresa May Day” suggested to show opposition to new powers for tracking Internet communications by copying May’s address into all letters sent during one day. This protest is scheduled to start on the oncoming May Day, the 1st of May. Thus far, the group has over 13,000 members.

Although the very idea of helping the authorities in tracking online communications by copying the Home Secretary into every email sent seems tongue-in-cheek, its purpose is to emphasize the wave of public bad feelings over the too controversial plans.

The country’s authorities have faced condemnation of plans that implied creating a database of emails sent within the United Kingdom, with the excuse provided being the common reasons of terrorism and pedophiles. As for Theresa May, who approved the British citizen Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition to the United States, she is seen to be trying to push through the proposed laws as quickly as she could, paying no attention to the outcry from both civil liberties campaigners and opposition within the Coalition.

One of the Facebook group’s members admitted that he had joined the group just to protest a move to an “authoritarian society”. He believes that this Coalition government, which continues the work of the other big business party in New Labour, is only plunging the country into an authoritarian society. He claims that neither Theresa May nor her colleagues are interested in their citizens aside from exploiting and monitoring them, trying to kettle ideas. It was rightly pointed out that the web is a great invention which enables people with knowledge, while for the politicians it serves them better to keep people stupid. For example, the proposed laws, which many netizens hope won’t pass, represent an unacceptable attack on personal freedoms.

Although changing government plans might appear difficult, group members still hope that they will be able to somehow widen protests against the proposed policy. Of course, they don’t believe the move they scheduled will achieve anything, but giving Theresa May and her assistants a headache for a day is still a little victory.