It’s been ten years since Danny O’Brien, Suw Charman and I announced the formation of the UK Open Rights Group at the 2005 Open Tech conference and asked the assembled people to pledge to pay £5/month to help fund a UK-based digital rights group that would fight for their rights online — and everywhere.
In the decade since, the Open Rights Group has fought innumerable campaigns, winning key victories and growing to a size and efficacy that startles me every time I ponder it. The staff, supporters and volunteers who made ORG happen have a lot to boast about, and ORG has created an interactive timeline of its key milestones and battles for you to look over.
ORG depends on its members to stay in the fight. Here’s where you join. ORG is the best hope we have for reminding the UK’s political classes that the Internet isn’t a better pornography distribution system, a glorified video on demand service, or a jihadi recruiting tool: it’s the nervous system of the 21st Century, and should be regulated with the delicacy and gravitas that such an important system demands.