EFA today announces the launch of the Digital Rights 2016 campaign. This generic and non-partisan campaign is intended to raise awareness of the importance of digital rights throughout the Australian community in the lead-up to the 2016 Federal election and beyond.
The primary issues that will be addressed as part of the campaign are:
- Privacy – including mass surveillance and privacy protections
- Access – including net neutrality and digital inclusion (supporting the 2016 National Year of Digital Inclusion)
- Censorship – promoting freedom of expression online
- Digital Citizenship – promoting respect and tolerance and resisting bullying and harassment
- Copyright – including enforcement activities and positive reform such as fair use
The campaign will not be presented as ‘an EFA campaign’ but is rather intended to be open for involvement and collaboration from as wide a range of interested parties as possible. EFA therefore invites civil society organisations, commercial entities and individuals across the country to support this campaign during this election year.
While launching the campaign at the EFA-hosted social event held at the end of Linux Conference Australia in Geelong on Friday 5th February, EFA Executive Officer Jon Lawrence said, “In an increasingly digitised world, digital rights need to be mainstream political issues. Australians lack the constitutional protections that are enjoyed by many other nations and the potential for abuse of these rights here is very real, whether from government overreach, private sector failures or individual actions. With support for innovation already set to be a key policy area for the election, it is critical that digital rights issues are also given mainstream attention.”
The Digital Rights 2016 campaign will utilise the digitalrights.org.au domain name as well as a dedicated Facebook page and Twitter account.