📝NEW: Read our latest Emergency Powers and Civil Liberties Report here⬇️

We cover how the pandemic response has impacted rights and freedoms, including:

Excessive policing 🚔
Online censorship 🤐
A Big Tech coup 🖥️
Protest bans 🪧
Vaccine passports 🛂

bit.ly/3ji53dj
EXCESSIVE POLICING:

The Government instigated a misguided 'crackdown'. Police have been arresting + fining people safely going for walks, sitting on benches + playing Pokemon Go.

We believe thousands of fines have been issued unlawfully. Every fine must be urgently reviewed.
ONLINE CENSORSHIP:

Social media firms have been taking down content, even from MPs, that contradicts or criticises Govt health policy

But in a democracy, we have the right to debate, dissent+ speak freely. Unelected Silicon Valley billionaires shouldn't be the arbiters of truth
PROTEST BANS:

The right to protest remains suspended, as protesters from a range of causes face fines and arrests.

Many of these protests posed no threat to public health until swathes of police officers arrived.

This is not about safety. It's about silencing political dissent
VACCINE PASSPORTS:

Vaccines Minister @nadhimzahawi said there were 'no plans' for vaccine passports. But Govt funded trials are underway right now.

These passes would be tantamount to vaccine coercion + would create a two-tier society on the basis of health status.
A DIGITAL COUP:

Vast amounts of data about our movements, employment, criminal records, religious + political beliefs are being fed into the secretive 'Covid-19 Data Store', a huge data black hole built by Palantir for the NHS.

We deserve to know how our data is being used.
The Dec-Jan Emergency Powers and Civil Liberties Report covers these issues in detail + many more.

We've also sent a copy to every MP and Peer in Parliament.

If you want to take action, email them & urge them to follow our recommendations. 📨

members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

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More from @BigBrotherWatch

29 Jan
🚨The Government just made a law - without parliament or even publicity - allowing police to access NHS Test & Trace data of people who are self-isolating.

This is a disastrous move that's draconian, undemocratic and misguided in equal measure.

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/97/r…
Medical privacy is the bedrock of any public health system, yet this Government is trashing it at a time when it has never been more important.

Blurring the lines between the NHS and police will deter people from getting tests or giving contact tracers accurate information.
To throw open this data gateway without consulting parliament or the even telling the public - on the premise of 'urgency' - is yet another example of this Government's pattern of abuse of power.

It is dangerous for public health & dangerous for democracy. MPs must challenge it.
Read 4 tweets
15 Jan
Still no explanation @nadhimzahawi for the Government contract for vaccine passports. Dismissive behaviour from the Minister on a critical issue.

There's cause for concern. The contracted companies, iProov and Mvine, have serious commercial interests in digital ID systems. /1
Mvine has a track record campaigning for "digital ID for all", even appropriating "activist" branding for its campaign (see below, from Mvine website) /2
iProov sells facial biometric technology for identification purposes.

It also provides technology for Estonia's mandatory digital ID system, which is regarded as one of the most sophisticated digital identity systems in the world. /3
Read 6 tweets
7 Jan
"Protecting public health".

@PoliceScotland stormed into a family home yesterday - on suspicion they had guests around... In fact their seriously ill daughter had just been discharged from hospital.

This is disgraceful. Serious questions must be answered - now. @NicolaSturgeon
Incredibly, in this 2nd video, the police remain and continue to distress the family whilst the daughter is on the floor.

We have reviewed a lot of poor and unlawful policing during the pandemic. This may be the most heinous and senseless example yet.

Change MUST follow this.
We have offered to provide support to the young woman concerned if required.

We will also pursue answers from @policescotland.
Read 4 tweets
4 Jan
The Prime Minister will order even tougher restrictions tonight via a *televised address* - yet again, evading the democratic process.

This is a deliberate pattern of rule by decree.

MPs cannot meaningfully vote on orders that have already been issued by the PM to the nation.
Every lockdown has been imposed by a televised address whilst parliament is in recess.

Democratic institutions, from parliament to the courts, have been unable to ensure this public health situation is managed effectively, rationally or democratically.

This weekend, police squads patrolled Speakers' Corner, used force and made arrests.

Read 4 tweets
14 Dec 20
🚨Extraordinary + welcome return to rationality by Vaccines Minister today:

"Mandating vaccinations is discriminatory & completely wrong. I, like @SteveBakerHW, urge businesses listening to this today not to even think about this. We've absolutely no plans for vaccine passports"
This major U-turn was confirmed during a Westminster Hall debate this evening in which an e-petition, signed by 300k+ people, urged the Government to prevent any restrictions on people who refuse to be vaccinated.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said he'd previously "misspoke".
In addition to @SteveBakerHW, Zahawi thanked @spectator + @talkRADIO for allowing him to 'explain' his position, & @ProfKarolSikora.

It followed Baker's strong case against implicit coercion:

"There can't possibly be ANY question of coercing people into taking the vaccine"
Read 5 tweets
28 Nov 20
🚨URGENT: @metpoliceuk has issued misleading and chilling statements ahead of today's demonstrations in London, denying our rights to organise and attend protests under current Coronavirus laws.

We have sent an urgent letter to the Met with @libertyhq to demand a correction. ⬇️
This is a misrepresentation of the law that fails to respect both the Coronavirus Regulations and fundamental freedoms of assembly & expression, protected by the Human Rights Act.

Protests organised with a risk assessment + safety measures can be lawful.

By denying that political gatherings can be organised and attended lawfully with safety measures, police are making inevitable protests less safe and more likely to result in prosecutions.

We cannot allow police to trash the rule of law.
Read 5 tweets

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