One of the concepts of a representative democracy is that you’re able to directly contact your representative and inform him or her of your opinions, so they can better represent you and your fellow citizens in your corresponding area. That’s kind of the whole thrust behind democracy.
Unless, apparently, you’re writing to complain to European politicians about the idiotic porn ban they’re considering next week.
In a move that’s either a case of spectacularly bad timing, terrible lack of awareness of the term “irony” or quite possibly both, Pirate Party member Christian Engstrom reveals that EU politicians aren’t clear on this whole “listening to the people” thing, when after getting 350 emails about the measure, suddenly the flow stopped:
When we started investigating why this happened so suddenly, we soon found out: The IT department of the European Parliament is blocking the delivery of the emails on this issue, after some members of the parliament complained about getting emails from citizens.
Yeah, stupid citizens! Who cares what they think! We know what’s best and they’ll just have to trust us!
We’re making light, but honestly, this is more than a little unsettling. Various European countries have been trying to clamp down on the Internet for years, and you can’t help but wonder if this proposal is just a stalking horse to yet again try to shut the Internet up and keep things the way they are.
Or, you know, maybe Europeans just need to vote for better politicians.