FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2017
Kim Dotcom, US Drone Whistleblower Cian Westmoreland to appear at 3rd #AntiSpyBill Event

US drone whistleblower Cian Westmoreland and other special guests will join tech entrepreneur and Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom on the panel of the third #AntiSpyBill live event this Sunday afternoon.

The event will be held online between 2pm and 5pm on Sunday the 27th of August, 2017, NZST (UTC+12) and follows on from the Internet Party’s first two #AntiSpyBill events which featured appearances by Dotcom, award-winning journalist Barrett Brown, hacktivist Lauri Love, comedian Lee Camp and CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou.

Internet Party Leader Suzie Dawson will MC the event and says: “In recent weeks, the Internet Party of New Zealand has hosted some of the most significant voices of our time. Our last event nearly doubled the reach of the first; gaining over 5.8million impressions in just a few hours. Today, we will gain valuable insight into the future of surveillance and warfare by delving into the issue of the weaponised drone programs which have been terrorising civilian populations in at least seven countries worldwide. It is now inevitable that the consequences of the use of this technology will come home to us in the West and it is of critical importance that the public understands what the real costs and dangers of this technology are.”

The Internet Party is inviting the public to join the roundtable event, which as well as discussing contemporary issues of the day, will continue its effort to draft crowdsourced legislation to counter government spying. There are one hundred first-in-first-served tickets for those who register for the #AntiSpyBill webinar that grant direct access to panelists.

The initiative seeks to counter the damage to democratic and human rights inflicted upon New Zealanders by a string of draconian spying laws passed between 2013 and 2016. These laws have retroactively legalised previously illegal targeting of New Zealanders, including warrantless spying and covertly filming them inside their homes, Orwell-style - a practice referred to in law as “domestic visual surveillance”.

Internet Party Leader Suzie Dawson said "New Zealand spies and their international counterparts have engaged in some of the most egregious conduct imaginable. The laws passed under urgency in recent years have only furthered the sense of invulnerability of these spies. They also violate international law. We must show that where our lawmakers fail to do so, the public are willing to step up and address these issues themselves.”

It is possible to participate in the event without registering, as it will be simulcast live on the official Internet Party Facebook page and You Tube channel.

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