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Big Brother Comes to Sweden

New surveillance law has country partying like it's 1984

By Paul Stinson,  Newser User

Posted Jul 13, 2008 1:01 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Don’t believe the hype: “Sweden is no cuddly liberal democracy,” writes Nathalie Rothschild for Spiked, berating her home country for “introducing the most Draconian surveillance law in Europe.” Known as the FRA law but nicknamed "Lex Orwell" by opponents, the legislation gives intelligence agencies the right to intercept all incoming foreign communication. “Emulate Sweden? No thanks.”

Sold as a measure to "map external threats," the legislation, Rothschild argues, is “driven by a sense of paranoia, suspicion, and a desire to rein in people’s liberties just in case.” Designed to fight “an entirely phantom threat to Swedish safety,” the law is “a more explicit version of the illiberal, precaution-obsessed anti-terror laws being instituted in America,” she argues.

Under the anti-terrorist legislative package known as the 'FRA law,' Swedish intelligence will have the right to intercept all foreign cable communication, including emails, telephone calls, faxes and text messages. The measure has drawn firece local reaction and comparisons to the Stasi, East Germany's state-sponsored organization of mass surveillance....
Under the anti-terrorist legislative package known as the 'FRA law,' Swedish intelligence will have the right to intercept all foreign cable communication, including emails, telephone calls, faxes and...   (Shutter Stock)
Sweden's FRA Law which allows for monitoring of all incoming foreign communications, has elicited 'Big Brother' comparisons from opponents who've nicknamed the measure as 'Lex Orwell.'
Sweden's "FRA Law" which allows for monitoring of all incoming foreign communications, has elicited 'Big Brother' comparisons from opponents who've nicknamed the measure as 'Lex Orwell.'   (Shutter stock)
50,000 balloons in the yellow and blue colours of the Swedish flag, are released into the air above a crowd in Stockholm, Sweden as the country celebrated its national day in June. Passage of the country's domestic surveillance law allowing for monitoring of all foreign communications have left many...
50,000 balloons in the yellow and blue colours of the Swedish flag, are released into the air above a crowd in Stockholm, Sweden as the country celebrated its national day in June. Passage of the country's...   (AP photo/Scanpix Sweden/Maja Suslin)
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Just how close are we to Orwell's vision of 1984?
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terrorism • surveillance • Sweden • FISA • Big Brother • eavesdropping • government spying

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