The past few years has seen a development that may look like the tables have turned completely with respect for the law. The people who are upholding the law and guaranteeing our fundamental rights are hunted activists. They are defending our law-written rights against none other than law enforcement. Who’s the police these days, anyway, and who’s the crook?
In June the Swedish parliament passed a controversial surveillance law that gives authorities a mandate to read all email and listen in on all phone calls without warrant or court order. In response to the law, The Pirate Party organized rallies, bloggers and journalists turned into activists, and even Google decided to relocate their servers.
In an response to the new wiretapping law that was introduced in Sweden this week, The Pirate Bay will ask international ISPs to block traffic to Sweden, to protect their customers. In addition, the BitTorrent tracker will add SSL encryption to their site, and roll out a new VPN service.
Despite public protests both online and on the streets of Stockholm, the Swedish parliament has voted in favor of a new “wiretapping” law which invades the privacy of its citizens by allowing the government to monitor web traffic and phone calls, without the need for court orders or similar authorization.
The Pirate Bay likes to get involved in Swedish politics every now and then, to stand up for their rights and those of others. Today they take a stand against a new law proposal that would make it possible for the government to track phone calls, emails and everything else people do on the Internet.
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Left Quote“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
Peter Sunde Left Quote
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