Headline: Greens go 'all black' for Internet freedom
The right of citizens to freely use the Internet without the fear of surveillance is a fundamental right that is being undermined worldwide
The Green Party is taking part in a global day of action against mass surveillance by blacking out their website to stand up for Internet freedom tonight.
Today, Tuesday 11th February is ‘The Day We Fight Back’, a global day of online action to protest against mass surveillance. From 6pm tonight (NZDT), the Green Party is joining with over 5,600 websites around the world, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Mozilla and Tumblr, by hosting a banner on their website to draw attention to invasive Internet surveillance.
“We are proud to stand with these organisations around the world, standing up for Internet freedom and protesting against the global surveillance state that we know exists,” Green Party ICT spokesperson Gareth Hughes said today.
“The right of citizens to freely use the Internet without the fear of surveillance is a fundamental right that is being undermined worldwide, including in New Zealand.
“Rather than taking a stand and promoting New Zealand as a leader in privacy and security, this National Government has bowed down to the United States and changed our spy laws in order to facilitate the global surveillance state.
“In the past year we’ve seen an erosion of New Zealanders’ basic freedoms and rights with this Government ramming through law changes to expand the powers of intelligence agencies and increase the obligations on the telecommunications industry to help facilitate the surveillance of New Zealand citizens.
“The Green Party will take back the freedoms of New Zealanders by repealing the recent changes to the GCSB and TICS Acts.
“We will stand up against the pervasive global surveillance state by closing the Waihopai spy base, which facilitates our membership of the Five Eyes intelligence network.
“We will also take Internet termination for copyright infringement off our law books and promote a sensible copyright debate.
“Ending mass surveillance and promoting internet freedom is not just the right thing to do, it is also a business opportunity supporting the innovative ICT sector and cloud computing,” said Mr Hughes.
More detail on the campaign can be found here: https://thedaywefightback.org/
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