{"id":1395,"date":"2017-01-01T01:01:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T01:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spanking-news.com\/?p=1395"},"modified":"2016-12-31T16:54:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T16:54:00","slug":"what-has-happened-to-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.spanking-news.com\/?p=1395","title":{"rendered":"What has happened to democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the OPEN RIGHTS GROUP for this information. Please subscribe. help protect your privacy<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

2016 has been a year to remember or possibly one to forget! Political upheaval and celebrity deaths aside, what did 2016 mean for digital rights?<\/p>\n

It was the year when….<\/p>\n

Theresa May got her snoopers’ charter<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While politicians, the media and public were distracted by Brexit, the UK parliament passed the most extreme surveillance law in a democracy \u2013 the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA). ORG fought hard to limit its severe measures but only the Lib Dems, Greens and SNP suggested serious amendments, which the Tories and Labour rejected. (So you know just what you will get if you elect a gutless Labour government? A copy of a right wing reactionary Conservative government) Our Comment!<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Courts say it needs to be rewritten
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\nIn 2014, ORG intervened in a case about data retention brought by the MPs Tom Watson and David Davis. ORG argued that blanket data retention contravened the protections set out in a previous Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgment. These arguments \u2013 including the unlawfulness of blanket retention \u2013 won the day and were accepted by the court. Last week, the CJEU stated, among other things, that blanket data retention is not permissible. This means that the Government is going to have to change the IPA or face another legal challenge. The fight-back begins!<\/p>\n

The Government decided it wanted to block porn<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Digital Economy Bill, which is currently going through parliament, will compel porn sites to verify that their users are over 18. The proposals, which don\u2019t include privacy protections, are largely unworkable because foreign porn sites could refuse to comply. Undeterred, the Government has now proposed to force ISPs to block sites that don\u2019t apply age verification \u2013 potentially blocking thousands of legal websites in the UK. And just last week, they confirmed that Twitter accounts that link to blocked websites could also be blocked.<\/p>\n

ORG is working to get the Government to amend the Digital Economy Bill so that privacy rights are protected. Over 18,000 people have already signed our petition against web blocking and this is going to be one of our big fights in 2017. Please sign the petition<\/a>, every signature counts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Open Rights Group<\/a><\/p>\n

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