Following reports that the British government has abandoned a citizen snooping program, speculations are emerging as to what has motivated Prime Minister David Cameron to adopt the decision. Ian Williams, a senior analyst from the London-based Foreign Policy in Focus, has told Press TV that Cameron was compelled to shelf the controversial plan due to European laws.
“The British government’s citizen snooping program would have been in violation of the European law which is quite strict about saving data and abusing data,” said Williams.
The British government, he added, would have found a way to get away with its citizen espionage program had it not been subject to the European Court of Justice, he added.
The Home Office announced on Sunday that it had removed several contentious proposals from the surveillance bill, stressing that the decision is based on concerns that the plan to snoop on Internet users would be rejected in parliament over civil liberties concerns.
Williams said that the bulk of Western governments have committed what he described as “outstanding breaches of human civil rights” in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks and “the so-called anti-terrorism hysteria”.