Join us on 28 September to find out out how the Snoopers’ Charter threatens press freedoms

We’re pleased to announce our next meetup after the summer break will take place on  take place on at BOM (Birmingham Open Media) at 6.30pm on Wednesday 28 September.

Please join us then to find out more about how the Government’s plans to expand online surveillance through the Investigatory Powers Bill (aka the Snoopers’ Charter) threatens press freedoms, why this matters for our democratic society and what action each of us can take to stop the Bill.

Join us to protect press freedom and democracy

Journalists have been some of the fiercest critics of the Government’s plans to expand surveillance powers through the Investigatory Powers Bill, launching the Save Our Sources petition to protect journalistic sources from state surveillance.

The meetup will feature contributions by Paul Bradshaw, Course Leader of Online Journalism MA at Birmingham City University and  Founder of Online Journalism blog and Help Me Investigate, an award-winning platform for collaborative investigative journalism.

RSVP

Although ORG Birmingham events are free, it really helps if people can RSVP via our meetup page. This helps us get an idea of likely numbers and makes it easy for us to let you know about future events.

Take action!

As well as attending the meetup, you can take the following actions to oppose the Government’s plans and demand targeted, not total surveillance:

Sign the Save Our Sources petition

Use ORG’s easy-to-use tool to Email your MP

Join Liberty’s #NoSnoopersCharter campaign

What is the Investigatory Powers Bill?

In November 2015, the Home Office published the draft Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), which was intended to be a comprehensive new law that would replace the UK’s broken legal framework for surveillance. However, instead of restricting mass surveillance, it will put all of the powers revealed by Edward Snowden and more into law.

Big Brother Watch have created fact sheets that explain the implications of the Bill in more detail.

If passed, the UK will have a surveillance law that is more suited to an authoritarian regime than a democracy. The Don’t Spy on Us campaign is calling for the Bill to be amended so that surveillance is targeted to those who are suspected of a crime, not the entire UK population.

More about ORG

Open Rights Group (ORG for short) is the UK’s only digital campaigning organisation working to protect the rights to privacy and free speech online. With almost 3,000 active supporters, we are a grassroots organisation with local groups across the UK.

ORG Birmingham is a local branch of ORG. We meetup regularly at Birmingham Open Media. You can also keep in touch with us via the ORG Birmingham blog and our Twitter account, @OpenRightsBrum.

Let’s get together to watch ‘The Haystack’ documentary on 21st century survillance

We’re excited to announce we’ll be screening ‘The Haystack’ documentary, which examines the rise of suspicionless surveillance in the UK, at our next meetup on Monday 4 July.

Investigatory Powers Bill now published : Email your MP!

You’ve probably heard by now that earlier today (1 March) the Home Office has published the revised Snoopers’ Charter / Investigatory Powers Bill less than three weeks after three reports by MPs and peers made 123 recommendations for changes.

On first reading, the revised Bill barely pays lip service to the serious concerns raised by the committees that scrutinised the draft Bill. The Bill still includes police powers to see which websites and apps we use, and bulk surveillance powers for GCHQ – it needs serious improvements.

You can find out more on the Don’t Spy On Us coalition website.

Ask your MP to stand up to the Home Office

Now that the Home Office has published the Bill, we need MPs to stand up to the Home Office’s attempts to ride roughshod over parliamentary scrutiny and avoid having a proper public debate.

You can help by contacting your MP to tell them you are unhappy about what the Home Office is doing and asking them to make sure the Investigatory Powers Bill is not rushed.

The national Open Rights Group has created an easy-to-use form for emailing your MP:

Email your MP tool

Remember, you don’t have to write a lot, the most important thing is to contact your MP as soon as possible to remind them that the Home Office should not rush the Investigatory Powers Bill should not be rushed through parliament. The main messages to include are:

• The Investigatory Powers Bill should not be rushed. The Home Office has been told to examine carefully the criticisms and recommendations of three Parliamentary committees. Less than three weeks is not enough time for a considered redrafting of the Bill. The new Bill only has a few significant changes from the draft version.
• The new powers for the Police to access our ‘Internet Connection Records’ – a database of our online activity in the last 12 months – is invasive and unneccessary. Internet Service Providers, web hosting companies, and parliamentarians have been critical of this power.
• The arguments made for bulk collection powers and Internet Connection Records are built on anecdotes. The operational case needs to provide figures, costs, and be open to scrutiny.

We’d love to hear what kind of repsponse you get from your MP. You can let us know via Twitter @OpenRightsGroup and @OpenRightsBrum

Keep up to date with ORG Birmingham

Please sign up for our mailing list to be first to know about future workshops, talks and campaigns:

Open Rights Group mailing list

You can also follow latest developments on Twitter @OpenRightsGroup,  @OpenRightsBrum and the #IPBill hashtag.

Open Rights Group Birmingham Established to Promote Digital Rights in Birmingham and Beyond

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Birmingham Open Media on Wednesday for the Open Rights Group Birmingham launch event.

Bringing people together (thanks to the power of crisps)

Over a fine(ish) selection of crisps and drinks, group organiser Francis Clarke explained why he had been motivated to establish Open Rights Group Birmingham to bring together people who are passionate about human rights and digital technology and want want to make a practical difference in the world.

The launch brought together people from different backgrounds and interests. Thanks to Birmingham Open Media’s support, artists were well-represented, as were people from Birmingham’s technology and community sectors. It was also great to see a positive gender balance, with an equal number of men and women contributing to the discussion.

After informal discussions about why it is important for all of us that  people’s rights are valued online as well as offline, the discussion shifted to what practical action members of Open Rights Group Birmingham can take to raise public awareness of threats to digital rights – from mass surveillance to restrictive business practices – and to encourage people to make full use of the potential of open technology.

Regular meetups and creative campaigning

I assure you we are open: a sandwich board outside Birmingham Open Media advertising the Open Right Group Birmingham launch

Moving forward, we will be holding regular FREE meet-ups in Birmingham for people to learn more about digital rights and open technology. We will be aiming to bring in guest speakers and screen interesting documentaries.

We have also started to think about what else we can do to convey the importance of digital rights to a more general audience. It’s still early days but we’re hoping to hold a series of events in October, to coincide with Democracy Week.

Open Rights Group Birmingham founder, Francis Clarke, said:

“As digital technology becomes central to our everyday lives, people are increasingly recognising the importance of ensuring human rights are valued the same online as offline. Open Rights Group Birmingham will work hard to protect digital rights in Birmingham and beyond and to promote an open, transparent society.”

Open Rights Group Birmingham is part of the UK-based campaigning organisation, Open Rights Group (ORG). Made up over 3,000 members, ORG works on issues ranging from mass surveillance, to copyright, censorship, data protection and open data and privacy.