ORG launches membership drive

The following email has been received today in the lab from the privacy and anti-censorship campaigners, the Open Rights Group (ORG):

Hi all,

As I mentioned in my previous email ORG are launching a big drive for new members. The plan is to launch our campaign to fund a Legal Officer on Thursday 1st of November (this week!) with a series of events and campaign activities to follow across the month.

I’m sure you are all aware of the recent prosecutions for offensive speech on social media and cases of website blocking injunctions. ORG are looking to fund a permanent legal position which will enable us to fight these cases in the courts. A large increase in membership will enable us to expand and hire an in-office lawyer and take the next step forward as an organisation. We’ll also be celebrating what ORG has achieved in the last year. Exciting stuff!

As part of the campaign we will be:

• Releasing a series of videos of ORG supporters like Ben Goldacre, Cory Doctorow & Heather Brooke (to name a few) talking about their personal interest in ORG and discussing some controversial topics like Government snooping and the crackdown on free speech to get people talking about digital issues.
• Organising Communications Data Bill training sessions at ORG groups across the country, bringing with them opportunities to sign-up to ORG.
• Running a CDB event in London, in partnership with Privacy International, Big Brother Watch and Index on Censorship.
• Email campaigns to encourage member-get-member sign ups with rewards for signing multiple friends.

There are more details to come, but we want to keep you in the picture of what’s happening.

Any way you can help with all of this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you again for all your support of ORG.

Best wishes,
Ruth
Member Support Officer