Local politicians found out that their plans to follow the example of the British government and spy on their people failed. The authorities believed that it would get its new surveillance legislation in easily, just like the UK and the US did.
However, Prime Minister John Key has found the plan very unpopular, as it led to nationwide protests and a demonstration just outside his house. Local reports confirmed that Auckland town hall was packed with people willing to hear opponents to new and expanded spy powers. This must mean something to the government, because the citizens rarely get out and protest about anything.

You might have guessed already that the crusade against snooping is being led by Mega founder, Kim Dotcom. Vikram Kumar, the CEO of the hosting giant, explained that if the Telecommunications Interception Capability and Security Bill becomes law, the authorities will issue secret orders to force non-telco service providers, like email, chat, and Internet voice services, to provide interception capabilities for surveillance.

Kumar showed documents proving that ministerial directives might be used to secretly impose an obligation to provide interception capabilities by individually named companies. Most likely, it will be done in secret to avoid publicly announcing a lack of capability in a particular service. The draft of the law has been already approved by the Cabinet and became an official government policy. Thus far, protest actions have focused on the TICS Bill and a Government Communications Services Bureau Bill due to the fear that spooks will look at legal internal political activism and undermine the privacy of virtual communications. It is known that the authorities want to use secret orders to certain service providers in order to create the interception capability and enable real-time access by surveillance agencies.

However, Prime Minister went as far as to claim that he would resign if GCSB undertook mass surveillance, even in case that he had created a system where it’s made possible. The industry experts point out that the GCSB Bill will only be voted for by a majority of one in Parliament. So, the protestors hope that the politicians will see how unpopular they’ll be after voting for it.