<nettime> BBC "...using simple technology to create a large-scale grassroots protest campaign almost overnight."

[ernie yacub <yacinfo@mars.ark.com>]

"It was a good strategy, and I'm glad we randomly stumbled upon it."
Danny O'Brien 


Simple but effective

 By Giles Turnbull 

How did a loose collective of internet users force a government U-turn on 
controversial changes to digital privacy laws? The answer is that they did it 
using simple technology to create a large-scale grassroots protest campaign 
almost overnight.  If you think most internet geeks are a bunch of 
self-interested games-addicted cynics with eyes for little else but their 
computer screens, it's time to think again. 

Last week, the UK online community scored a dramatic victory over government 
plans to give all sorts of public bodies access to records of everyone's 
e-mail and phone records. 

And it all happened astonishingly fast. Within days of the alarm being 
raised, Home Secretary David Blunkett publicly apologised for "getting it 
wrong". 

[....]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/dot_life/newsid_2062000/2062418.stm

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