Over 19,000 Emails Sent Concerning UK 'Snooper's Charter' -- Not A Single One In Support Of It

from the batting-zero dept

Fri, Oct 12th 2012 9:33am — Mike Masnick

Back in June, Glyn wrote about the so-called "Snooper's Charter" in the UK. It was a draft Communications Bill that had some ridiculous surveillance measures, such as data retention by ISPs on all emails. There was an open comment period, and apparently over 19,000 emails were sent in. And, it turns out, the score was over 19,000... to zero. Yes, not a single comment submitted in support of the bill. From the Joint Parliamentary Committee:

... we have not seen a single email supporting the draft Communications Data Bill, or even agreeing that there may be a case for the security services and law enforcement agencies having greater access to communications data than they do at present.

While many of the emails received were generated from organizations opposed to the bill, you'd think that someone out there would be in favor of it. At the very least, hopefully this leads to a pretty big rethinking of the effort.

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Filed Under: data retention, public support, snooper's charter, surveillance, uk

22 Comments

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Zakida Paul (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:37am

I would like to think that this government would listen to those 19000 emails and scrap the Bill but I have my doubts. The coalition have no interest in listening to anyone but their wealthy benefactors.
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wild_quinine (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:50am

Probably not
hopefully this leads to a pretty big rethinking of the effort.

I doubt it. It's for our own good.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:52am

Apparently the UK mistook 1984 for goverment power: a user's guide.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:53am

Re: Probably not
It's 'for the children' so it will go through.
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The eejit (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:54am

Re:
Well, you mean the Tories plus Nick Clegg.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:57am

Re: Re:
The Tories are calling the shots, Clegg is the biggest yes man going.
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weneedhelp (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:57am

19,000
We now know who to snoop on first.
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Michael, 12 Oct 2012 @ 9:59am

Who wrote the bill?
If you write a bill and there are open comments concerning it, don't you take the time to write up an email and support your own bill?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 10:02am

with all those emails in opposition to this ridiculous new surveillance bill, the UK government will definitely introduce it. after all, the proposal only came up because, like with everything else, the US Government want it in place and the UK government haven't got the balls to say 'NO' or the sense to realise it's not being done to benefit the UK
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 10:05am

Re: Who wrote the bill?
One theory is that they can't understand technology, which explains why:

A) they support the bill
and
B) they don't seem to be able to send an email in support of the bill
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 10:11am

You know what that means, the opposition is too popular, and too much of a 'celebrity' position, which means the unpopular choice is the correct one, since celebrities must be bad! And only ignorant young people like celebrities!
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The Real Michael, 12 Oct 2012 @ 10:16am

I imagine their excuse would be that the 19,000+ emails are from the "vocal minority" and that since the majority of people didn't bother to write in, they'll construe that as meaning overwhelming public support.

Yeah, that's the ticket.
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zos (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 11:05am

It won't. they'll just pull a digital economy bill and only 40 of them will show up to work that day, then they'll vote it through with no debate. Speaking of, who's read cory doctorow's new book, pirate cinema?
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 11:11am

Re:
Those in favor of it just didn't bother with the dog and pony show that makes citizens think they have input.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 11:19am

Re:
The emails are a sign of severely misinformed people who does not understand the need they have for it. In that light it is actually the duty of the x-cons and lips to help the people understand its importance by ramming it through!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 11:27am

population over 62 million
19 thousand emails, is statisticly nothing, it indicates people don't care or support the draft as is
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2012 @ 11:52am

Re:
This reminds me of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy's explnation of why the universe is uninhabited
"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
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The eejit (profile), 12 Oct 2012 @ 12:39pm

Re:
It's stitistically significant, considering that the last election had a 39% turnout of voting-age people - so that's around 20 million people. 19,000 out of those is still a considerbale number in UK politics. The UK anti-ACTA petition only got 100,000, and that was the second-largest petition in history (behind Hillsborough re-opening).
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Beech, 12 Oct 2012 @ 1:06pm

The other side
Those in favor of the bill have made their opinions known to the politicians in the form of campaign contribution checks, rather than email.
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trish, 12 Oct 2012 @ 1:23pm

little people
Why do the little people think their opinion matters? This is democracy, dammit! This is how it works: The little guys vote once every few years to make them think they have a say in how society works. Then, for the next four years or whatever the term is, they get screwed by the wealthy corporate guy and the welathy politician guy who teamed up to scheme and steal their way to ever-greater riches. Then, the little guy votes for the other politician who will make grandiose promises to "clean-up" the system; and they all trolololo on their way to the bank.
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Duke (profile), 13 Oct 2012 @ 10:14am

Re: Who wrote the bill?
This only refers to emails sent as a result of mass-email campaigns (see here for more info, and the original document). If you read through all the written evidence (warning, 449-page pdf) they got, there are quite a few people (including the first response) in favour of the plan.
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xfacta, 14 Oct 2012 @ 5:45pm

Re: Who wrote the bill?
not if you know the emails will be ignored anyway
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