Global Petition To Halt Mass Surveillance By Famous Writers

[Coyotl]

Dec 14, 2013

"MORE than 500 authors from over 100 countries have signed a global petition against mass surveillance and the collection of metadata by governments, security agencies and corporations.

The authors include five Nobel prize winners and well-known Australian identities Frank Moorhouse, John Coetzee, Helen Garner, Geraldine Brooks and David Malouf.

Mr Moorhouse, who has written extensively about Australia's spy agency ASIO, told The Australian he hoped the petition would spark international debate about the collection of personal data as the rise of whistleblowers and "conscience driven hackers" such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden shed more light on the actions of governments and clandestine security agencies."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

[cantbeserious]

1. A Noble Sentiment - However - Fascist Regimes Always Seek To Silence Critics - The Intellectuals

[bpollen]

2. The title is a bit misleading...

and maybe should have read "Global petition by famous writers to halt mass surveillance."

As it is, it sounds like famous writers are surveilling us.

[TygrBright]

3. OMG, Famous writers are snooping ME?!? n/t

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Yikes, "Or as another, long-dead literary luminary once said: four legs good, two legs better."

Just saw this interpretation of the news in print CP. It raises a number of good points, nothing warm and fuzzy here.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2364-the-one-percent-solution-oligarchs-to-the-rescue.html

The One Percent Solution: Oligarchs to the Rescue!

WRITTEN BY CHRIS FLOYD
SUNDAY, 05 JANUARY 2014 00:53

* Below is my most recent column for CounterPunch Magazine.

Last month, 500 famous authors signed a petition protesting the encroachments of the all-pervasive, techno-surveillance culture that is covering the earth with hidden eyes and ears, like a metastasized Stasi run amok. We’re talking heavy literary lumber here: Nobel Prize-winners, critic list-toppers, best-sellers – big names calling on the UN to create “an international bill of digital rights.”

The authors state the indisputable truth: the "fundamental human right" of personal privacy "has been rendered null and void through abuse of technological developments by states and corporations.” They rightly declare that “a person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy. To maintain any validity, our democratic rights must apply in virtual as in real space."

Of course, one might like to see those “democratic rights in real space” applied a bit more vigorously in these days of airport x-rays, mandatory drug tests, “indefinite detention,” “extrajudicial execution,” “free speech zones,” etc. The accelerating degradation of “real space” liberties hardly inspires hope for preserving freedom in the virtual realm. Still, no sensible person would dispute the very worthy goals espoused in the petition.

And yet, a cankerous old worm of skepticism keeps creeping in. Especially when the petitioners declare that this assemblage of Tolstoyan speakers of truth to power is not actually “against government.” Good gracious no! As Danish writer Janne Teller told the Guardian: "This initiative must be seen as helping governments, who like to preserve democracy in the western world."

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