Kim Dotcom, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

To Appear Together At Internet Party #AntiSpyBill Event

Acclaimed CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou and other special guests will join tech entrepreneur and Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom on the panel of the next #AntiSpyBill live event this Sunday night.

This comes hot on the heels of several major American publications reporting on technical evidence recently presented by the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals For Sanity (VIPS), of which Kiriakou is a member, to the White House regarding the DNC leaks of 2016.

The event will be held online between 8 pm and 11 pm on Sunday the 20th of August, 2017, NZST (UTC+12) and follows on from the Internet Party’s flagship #AntiSpyBill event which featured appearances by Dotcom, award-winning journalist Barrett Brown, hacktivist Lauri Love and comedian Lee Camp.

Internet Party Leader Suzie Dawson will MC the event and says: “In the age of fake news, the truth is more valuable than ever. The Internet Party is proud to provide a platform to some of the world’s most significant whistleblowers; to work alongside top minds in technology and internet policy, and to educate the global public. The response to our last #AntiSpyBill event was phenomenal, with millions of Twitter impressions and tens of thousands of views. The public has voted with their voices and clicks - truth matters and that is precisely what the Internet Party will continue to dish up in spades.”

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 is 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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