South Africa plans hardline Internet snooping legislation
Bill would ban communications that can't be bugged
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Protest is growing in South Africa about the country's plan to introduce legislation that closely parallels the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
South Africa's Interception and Monitoring Bill aims to "regulate the monitoring of communications" and even advocates banning forms of communications that can't be bugged, which means it goes further than Britain's RIP Act.
The bill is designed to allow police and South Africa's security services to monitor terrorists and serious criminals online, but critics describe it as a charter for government snooping whose main provisions are "draconian".
On a site set up to protest about the bill, campaigners outline their objections.
"The South African government wants to implement a draconian Internet censorship law that will allow officials to censor, curtail, eavesdrop on, monitor, intercept and in fact completely regulate all the country's Internet and postal communications," they state. Protestors said that the measures in the bill are similar to those recently introduced in China
Protestors are urging concerned citizens to make their objections known before the end of the South African government's consultation process, on August 13. ®
External Links
South Africa's Interception and Monitoring Bill (in full)
Sheep Action: protest site against the Bill
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