Yui Mok/PA Archive/PA Images. All rights reserved.With the fallout of the Brexit referendum and the Trump election dominating the news, one important story of 2016 did not receive the attention it deserved: in late November, the British parliament adopted a law with an obscure name but far-reaching implications for citizens in the UK and, potentially, beyond. The ‘Investigatory Powers Act’ is a comprehensive legislative framework that regulates the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies and other public authorities.
While the government has maintained that the new law is "world-leading", critics have pointed out that it allows for some of the most extensive and intrusive surveillance practices in the world, and have asked: “What part of the world are we leading exactly: North Korea, Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia?”
The development of what was initially the Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill took over a year, was preceded by several other attempts to create what has been called a “Snooper’s charter”, and was accompanied by strong opposition from civil society, industry and several parliamentary commissions. Yet it survived all this largely unchanged and eventually became law “with barely a whimper” and a largely muted response from the British public. How did this happen?
