Ed from the Open Rights Group writes, "The Conservatives have won an absolute majority in the General Election. The Home Secretary Theresa May has already said that she will use this majority to pass a new Snoopers' Charter."
"But the Conservatives have a very small majority so if we work hard enough and persuade enough MPs that increasing surveillance is wrong, we can stop them. We can do it, but we need your help. Can you join ORG today and give £5 a month to help us fight off the Snoopers Charter?"
The massively unpopular Snooper's Charter is a mass-spying bill that requires ISPs, online services and telcoms companies to retain enormous amounts of private online transactions, and to hand them over to government and law enforcement employees without a warrant. It was repeatedly defeated in the last Parliament, but the Tories are poised to ram it through.
Theresa May has already said this morning that she will use this majority to pass a new Snoopers' Charter. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the Conservatives' majority is tiny. Their leadership will have to work incredibly hard to secure a majority for new laws. Every MP's vote will count and this presents a huge opportunity for campaigns like ORG's to influence what happens.What are the Conservatives likely to try to legislate on now? Their manifesto says that they would:
* introduce "new communications data legislation" – also known as the Snoopers' Charter,
* scrap the Human Rights Act",
* "require internet service providers to block sites",
* "enable employers to check whether an individual is an extremist",
* "requir[e] age verification for access to all sites containing pornographic material" – which is very difficult to implement
And David Cameron has said that every message we send should be readable by the state – even when we've encrypted it.
This Government will put the Snoopers Charter and more back on the table [Ed Paton-Williams/ORG]
