Censorship has been a worldwide issue within the media. Poland is no different, except that citizens do not agree with censorship of the internet. Thousands of protesters took to the streets to protest the signing of the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) agreement.
"ACTA is a far-reaching agreement that aims to harmonize international standards on protecting the rights of those who produce music, movies, pharmaceuticals, fashion, and a range of other products that often fall victim to intellectual property theft."
Many feel that this is jeopardizing online freedoms and potentially will lead to authorities blocking certain content on the internet. Also they feel that the government could use this to there advantage by blocking content that the public should know.
Besides for the protests in the street, internet hackers have taken it to the extreme by hacking such websites as the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Turk. The public was unaware of the facts about the agreement but once the hackers spread the message and facts many became to dislike ACTA.
Since social media has re-shaped world media there is no surprise that there was a "No to ACTA" Facebook page. According to Tech Dirt this Facebook page has reached a half of million supporters. Not only Facebook has been used in this fight, twitter is another media source anti-ACTA activists have used.
A message from Twitter user @AnonymousWiki after the sites went down read: "Dear Polish government, we will continue to disrupt and interfere with your government official websites until the 26th. Do not pass ACTA."
As blackmail towards the government, this anonymous "hacktivist" group threatened to send out sensitive government information that they aquired from offical websites and they would publish it if parliament passes ACTA. The Parliament fought back by saying:
"Polish government – we are more powerful than you. We have a lot of your files and personal information. We warn you to exercise caution."
Surprisingly, some lawmakers did not agree with ACTA. Most of these lawmakers are conservative, liberals and are not pleased with the agreement. They wore masks to protest the signing of the ACTA agreement.
Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski stated:
"ACTA is not as threatening as young people fear."
With that Parliament decided not to listen to the public and to follow suit with the rest of the world; So ACTA was signed.
Credit: The Washington Post