Kim Dotcom Forming New Political Party In New Zealand
from the never-a-dull-moment dept
Whatever your views about Kim Dotcom, you have to admire his dogged fight against extradition from New Zealand, not least because it has revealed some serious abuses of power against dozens of people. Now it seems he is taking things a stage further, if this recent tweet is any indication:
My embryonic NZ political plans leaked by whistleblower. Still looking for partners. Not ready yet :-) pic.twitter.com/azpTQm98kJ
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) August 31, 2013
In case you can't read that, it says:
My embryonic NZ political plans leaked by whistleblower. Still looking for partners. Not ready yet :-)
TorrentFreak has more details:
The photograph of the magazine [shown in the tweet above] suggests that Dotcom might become PM, but speaking with TorrentFreak today the Mega founder told us that at least for now, that won't be possible.
Another tweet spells out what might be in that program:
"I'm not a citizen of New Zealand and therefore I can't be elected into Parliament myself but I can be the president of a new party," Dotcom explained.
So, with an eye on his presidency, work is already underway to form a brand new party.
"I have created a draft political program and I am in the early stages of meeting potential candidates to join me," Dotcom added.After the 2014 election I will get New Zealanders a new submarine cable [to connect New Zealand to the rest of the Internet], fair Internet pricing & no more data caps.
General elections don't take place in New Zealand until November 2014, so he still has some time. He's already mentioned that the party's official Web site will be launched at a "big event" on 20 January next year -- the second anniversary of the raid on his house that started everything.
New Zealand's current Prime Minister, John Key, said on a breakfast TV program that Dotcom should call his political party the "nohope" party. It remains to be seen whether Dotcom follows through with this idea, and what traction he gains. But the success around the world of the Pirate Party, with a platform largely focused on copyright reform, and the rise of other non-traditional movements such as the fledgling Wikileaks Party in Australia, shows that dismissing Dotcom's plans as hopeless may turn out to be unwise. While any individual party may not succeed, the fact that so many are popping up shows how little traditional political parties seem to grasp how important these issues are to many internet users.
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Filed Under: copyright, digital rights, internet freedom, kim dotcom, new zealand, political parties
