Advocacy

Advocacy is a civil rights organisation. In 3307, it spoke out against the Proactive Detection Bureau, a Federal agency created under the Domestic Counter-Terrorism Act to monitor public and private comms networks across Federation space for criminal and terrorist activity, and subsequently warned that the Federal Intelligence Agency was arresting secessionists on spurious charges after several Federal factions opposed to the PDB considered declaring their independence.

Timeline

21 JUL 3307

• More Federal factions are considering declaring independence following the recent conflict in the Azaladshu system. Sofia Trevino, political journalist with The Federal Times, published an overview of the situation: "When Azaladshu Free seceded in reaction to the government's surveillance laws, it inspired three other factions to do the same, making ten systems and a billion people independent. Superpowers routinely gain and lose systems via local politics, but this was a rare instance of member factions abandoning their fealty. The newly sovereign nations have severed all links with the Proactive Detection Bureau, so their communications are no longer being monitored. Despite broad public support for the Domestic Counter-Terrorism Act, many citizens still consider personal privacy to be a constitutional right. Dozens of other factions are now considering independence. This affects only a small percentage of the systems under Federal control, but is highly embarrassing for President Hudson as well as Shadow President Winters – her organised resistance to the surveillance laws is what inspired factions to secede. Advocacy, the civil rights organisation, claims that the Federal Intelligence Agency has begun arresting secessionist ringleaders under spurious charges. If true, it suggests that the government will go to any lengths to prevent a full-scale rebellion spreading throughout the Federation."

14 MAY 3307

• The Proactive Detection Bureau, which monitors all civil communications in the Federation, has received a boost from the galactic community. President Hudson's campaign for additional data proved so successful that the PDB has dramatically increased the range of its surveillance. Deputy Director Bethany Blake of the Federal Intelligence Agency announced: "We are now able to discreetly scan almost every private and public communications network used within Federal systems. As a result, arrest rates have soared and several organised crime rings have been dismantled." Shadow President Winters's efforts to distribute methods of blocking the PDB received considerable support, but failed to eclipse Hudson's initiative. This was interpreted by the Federal government as a mandate from the citizens to continue its surveillance programme. Rhiannon Grady, director of the civil rights organisation Advocacy, told the media: "Since the vast majority of citizens will never receive a visit from the FIA for their activities, the public has no sense of what they have lost. But history teaches us how hard it is to regain freedoms once you've given them away. The Federation has taken a large step toward becoming an interstellar police state with little regard for the individual."

23 APR 3307

• Shadow President Felicia Winters has claimed that the Proactive Detection Bureau is unconstitutional as it violates the Federal Accord. In an address before Congress, she said: "The Federation's constitution explicitly guarantees citizens the right to data security and privacy. The PDB tramples over this by raiding everyone's personal communications, casting aside decency and dignity so that algorithms can probe into every aspect of our lives. Furthermore, if ACT's hypothesis is correct and the NMLA is using an advanced dark-comms network, then the PDB's existence is baseless and unjustifiable." Vice President Jerome Archer responded: "The Domestic Counter-Terrorism Act is emergency legislation that temporarily suspends constitutional statutes, until we are satisfied that the terrorist threat has been negated. Following the PDB's success in uncovering extremist groups, we are widening the search parameters to include other related criminal activity." Opinion polls suggest that a slim majority of Federal citizens accept that some liberties must be sacrificed in return for increased security. However, according to the civil rights organisation Advocacy, the speed with which the PDB gained access to data hubs suggested that "The infrastructure was already in place – all the government needed was an opportunity to make it legal."