Do citizens even matter anymore?
Chris Richardson | January 27, 2012 |
As we touched on earlier, as members of the European Union sign ACTA into something of an existence — it still requires ratification from the European Union parliament — various EU citizens have decided to fight back against ACTA. Unfortunately, while these protests are getting noticed, the ruling governments signed the treaty anyway.
While ACTA may not be as popular as the SOPA/PIPA bills were, it could impact the Internet in ways its American counterparts could not, which helps explain the international outcry against the treaty. If you haven’t read it, perhaps you should. Are you ready for another fight to protect the open nature of the Internet or was the SOPA standoff your stopping point? Let us know what you think.
At least the anti-SOPA protests resulted in positive results. With ACTA, it appears as if the complaints are falling on deaf ears. That being said, it hasn’t stopped people from donning Guy Fawkes masks and various other anti-ACTA paraphernalia to voice their displeasure. Citizens of Poland, for example, have been out in force in an effort to get their government to take notice, and while the Polish government has already issued a response, it’s fallen largely on deaf ears.
There’s a live feed of the Polish protests available at RT.com, but the feeling of these citizens is perhaps best captured with the following YouTube video, complete with subtitles:
There’s also a Google+ account called ACTA Protests, and it documents the current struggle quite well. Here, visitors are presented with another video explaining what ACTA is and the potential harm it represents:
Over at Avaaz.org, there’s a petition to be signed, and while ACTA is making its way through the European Union, U.S. citizens are invited to sign it as well. Avaaz’ goal is to reach 750,000 signatures, and the petition is currently close to breaking the 600,000 signatures mark.
The thinking is, if the outcry is loud enough, maybe these governments will sit up and take notice; although, considering all the governments that have already signed ACTA, these protests may not do any good until the EU parliament looks at the treaty, something it’s scheduled to do this summer.
Speaking of outcry, Twitter has, of course, weighed in on ACTA, and it’s easy to see the governments and the citizens they govern do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to Internet regulations.
Source: webpronews.com
