This Government will put the Snoopers Charter and more back on the table

 Against all expectations the Conservatives have won an absolute majority in the General Election. They will be able to propose whichever new laws they like. And if all the Conservative MPs vote together, they will be able to pass whichever laws they like.

Theresa May has already said this morning that she will use this majority to pass a new Snoopers’ Charter. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the Conservatives’ majority is tiny. Their leadership will have to work incredibly hard to secure a majority for new laws. Every MP’s vote will count and this presents a huge opportunity for campaigns like ORG’s to influence what happens.

What are the Conservatives likely to try to legislate on now? Their manifesto says that they would:

• introduce “new communications data legislation” – also known as the Snoopers’ Charter,
• “scrap the Human Rights Act”,
• “require internet service providers to block sites”,
• “enable employers to check whether an individual is an extremist”,
• “requir[e] age verification for access to all sites containing pornographic material” – which is very difficult to implement

And David Cameron has said that every message we send should be readable by the state – even when we’ve encrypted it.

This is clearly a bad list of policies for digital rights supporters and we’re going to fight them every step of the way. The Conservatives have a very small majority so if we work hard enough and persuade enough MPs, we can protect our digital rights and the Internet.

We can do it, but we need your help.

Can you join ORG today and give £5 a month to help us fight for digital rights at this incredibly challenging time?
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/

And if you’re already a paying supporter, could you consider increasing your monthly donation?
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/upgrade-your-membership

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