Warning: Extremely angry rant below.
Photo: Remixed by me, originals by MathewBlack, Maol and Shaz Pur on Flickr.
What I wrote about in the last post turned out to be true. Folkpartiet (the liberal party (yeah right), click here for english info) has chosen to wrap some silk lining around the FRA-law and OK it.
Then why the charade pretending that you really want to change the law? Why did you, the six MPs that initially opposed the law, say “Tear it, Do it again, and this time do it right”?
Populistic crap. My confidence in politicians has hit rock bottom.
Weak, uneducated, fascistic, control obsessive, technology frightened people.
You call yourselves “liberal”? Try “fascist” instead.
So you say this new version of the law would require the “go ahead” from a court? But why should an open society give a “go ahead” to any unwarranted wiretapping whatsoever? Wiretap criminals, not citizens!
The internet was born free and should stay that way, anything else is anti-democratic and limiting to freedom of speech.
Also, the presence of a surveillance system of this type raises the question of “What if I’m being monitored?” which prohibits habits which are extremely valuable to keep a society open. Motivating these kinds of laws with fear of terrorism and the good old fear of Russia is FUD tactics and is a low-level marketing or political tactic. From Wikipedia:
Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) is a “tactic” of rhetoric used in sales, marketing, public relations[1][2] and politics. FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence public perception by disseminating negative (and vague) information. An individual firm, for example, might use FUD to invite unfavorable opinions and speculation about a competitor’s product; to increase the general estimation of switching costs among current customers; or to maintain leverage over a current business partner who could potentially become a rival.
The term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry and has since been used more broadly.[3] FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear.
Ugly. Plain ugly. And we elected these politicians.
In their motivations they also draw references to the German wiretap laws that works in the same way. This law has been heavily critized by several organizations and the last reports showed that many citizens hesitate, or simply do not, call helplines or make other sensitive calls in fear of being monitored.
Neils C. Scorrel writes in “German Tap Lessons” (1 | 2):
“When it comes to keeping tabs on its own residents in the ongoing war on terror, there’s a lot the United States could learn from Germany. Interestingly, the lessons would not be from Nazi Germany, where average citizens were encouraged to report on their neighbors, or from East Germany, where hundreds of thousands of people provided damning evidence about their friends and families. Neither regime lived up to its popular reputation as an all-knowing spy state.”
[...]
“September 11 and revelations of a Hamburg cell’s involvement gave authorities added incentive to increase the surveillance. During the past decade, Germany has increased its use of wiretaps by 500 percent. In 2004 alone, more than 29,000 wiretaps were approved, seven times the number authorized by U.S. courts that same year. The bulk of these taps are focused on common criminals—money launderers, extortionists, and the like. But a small percentage is aimed at people who fit the profile of potential terrorists.
Yet German authorities cannot point to a single successful prosecution of a terror suspect identified from these blind wiretaps. The colossal volume of information produced from tens of thousands of these taps often obscures real threats, while dead ends are pursued. Authorities quite simply do not have the time to listen to and process it all.”
[...]
“So, why haven’t wiretaps yielded much information about terror operations? Part of the reason is that terrorists have become savvier. They’ve learned not to discuss sensitive matters by telephone. They use couriers and shared e-mail accounts to send messages instead. But, more important, there is simply far too much information for authorities to wade through. Key points are hidden by the reams of data that modern society generates. Increasing the number of wiretaps often just increases the size of the haystack, making the needle that much harder to find.”
Why are our politicians so god damned uneducated? Why are they creating laws that aim at closing down our open and democratic society? Why do I even have to make this connection? Shouldn’t it already have been considered?
Below are the six MPs that with their populistic campaigns made us believe in them and not pursue other avenues of possible countermeasures against our government. For contact details, follow the links.
Camilla Lindberg, Birgitta Ohlsson, Agneta Berliner. Maria Lundqvist-Brömster, Cecilia Wikström and Solveig Hellquist.
Some might think that I’m attacking the wrong politicians and that these are the ones that has actually made an effort to change something. You might think that the guilty ones are those that say nothing and just vote as they’re told.
Other bloggers are referring information given to them by these people and saying that “There will be no automated information transfer to FRA, this is a Win!”. Woopedidoo. Internet got semi-filtered and we consider it a win? Give me a break.
I do not agree with any such comments. Neither do I trust anything that come out of these politicians mouths. These are the ones that has acted to divert the citizens criticism until it was too late.
These are the ones that stood in front of thousands of people that took the streets on the 16th of September and said that they would tear up the law, redo it, and do it right.
These are the ones that appeared on national television ensuring us that the law would be killed and that no one that was not suspected of a crime would not be susceptible to wiretaps.
Yet another silky pink bow… That’s all they’ve done. Weak.
If they really are going ahead with this (and it looks pretty much so) it’s a huge lose. No win. Just lose.
Another person that feels like that is Mark Klamberg, a leading Folkpartiet politician and FRA-opposition leader. When these plans were unveiled he immediately left the party and ended all of his responsibilities. Credit to him for putting his money where his mouth is.
The people’s last chance to reverse will soon be to wait for the next election, replace the government, and vote as many mandates as possible to the Pirate Party or (I do not like this) the left wing party.
For some strange reason, those are the only ones that really oppose mass surveillance in our society.
Why is that?
Others writing (swedish though, run them through translate.google.com) about this: HAX, Copyriot, Mark Klamberg, Christian Engström (PP), Rick Falkvinge (PP), Opassande, Rosetta Sten (Anna troberg), Deep.edition, Svensson, BrokeP (TPB).
