Artist Björk Guðmundsdóttir is one of the signatories of a petition aimed at US President Barack Obama denouncing the “abuse of technological developments by states and corporations for mass surveillance purposes”.
The Guardian reports that the petition includes over 500 of the world’s leading authors, including Arundhati Roy, Don DeLillo, Margaret Atwood and Günter Grass.
Aimed at US President Barack Obama, the petition is straight-forward in its language, stating in part:
The basic pillar of democracy is the inviolable integrity of the individual. Human integrity extends beyond the physical body. In their thoughts and in their personal environments and communications, all humans have the right to remain unobserved and unmolested.
This fundamental human right has been rendered null and void through abuse of technological developments by states and corporations for mass surveillance purposes.
A person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy.
Björk is not the only prominent Icelander to have signed the petition, either. Other names include authors Einar Már Guðmundsson, Hallgrímur Helgason and Andri Snær Magnason. The petition is at just over 19,000 signatures at the time of this writing.
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