Anti-ACTA day: Angry crowds take action
The world has witnessed an unprecedented day of protests against ACTA. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in dozens of cities around the globe to protect what is left of the freedom of expression on the internet.
Protesters from over 200 European cities consolidated their efforts to hold rallies across Europe. The controversial ACTA treaty was signed by the majority of European countries and now there is
a battle to dissuade parliaments from ratifying the agreement.
Massive strikes took place in Germany with organizers saying that a total of some 100,000 people have gathered in many cities across the country, including Berlin, Hanover, Hamburg, and Cologne. Just the previous day Germany put on hold its joining the ACTA treaty after its Justice Ministry decided to wait until the issue is discussed in the European parliament.
Demonstrators protest against ACTA on February 11, 2012 in Berlin. (AFP Photo / Soeren Stache Germany Out)
Demonstrators protest against ACTA in Paris.
In Paris hundreds of masked protesters marched against ACTA, which they say infringes on people’s personal freedoms.
Up to 8,000 people marched in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, carrying signs carrying such slogans as “ACTA la vista, baby!”
A reasonably large protest was staged in Malta’s capital, Valetta, where more than 500 young people gathered to urge the state’s parliament not to ratify ACTA.
About 1,500 people gathered in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, while several hundred staged a protest in the university city of Tartu.
The earlier mass discontent over ACTA in the streets and on the Internet has already delivered some tangible results. Some EU countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Latvia and Germany, have decided to halt their joining processes until the European parliament reaches an agreement on the issue in June.
Last month massive rallies took place in Poland and the Czech Republic, as the countries signed the ACTA agreement. On January 26, the controversial ACTA treaty was signed by the 22 of the 27 European Union member states (excluding Germany, Cyprus, Estonia, the Netherlands and Slovakia), and the EU itself.
So far ACTA has been signed by a total of 31 countries across the globe, but none of the signatories have yet ratified it. To come into force ACTA needs to be ratified by at least six countries.
Insult to democracy
Peter Bradwell, a campaigner for the Open Rights Group, believes ACTA is an “unacceptable insult to democracy” as the agreement hands too much unchecked power to private interests.
The system proposed by ACTA allows businesses to have content taken down and to have users placed under surveillance by their Internet service providers, he said in an interview with RT.
It effectively criminalizes “the wrong people” and, intentionally or unintentionally, harms freedom of expression. “You are creating a system that can be abused and where mistakes can happen. That’s why it’s such a dangerous agreement,” he explains.
Watch RT's interview with Peter Bradwell
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