The UK's 'Snoopers' Charter' — bulk surveillance powers that reach any company operating in Britain.
The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 gives UK intelligence agencies (GCHQ, MI5, MI6) the legal power to collect bulk communications data, require companies to remove encryption, and compel internet providers to store every UK citizen's browsing history for 12 months.
The Act authorises: bulk interception of communications, bulk collection of metadata (who contacted whom, when, from where), equipment interference (hacking devices), and Internet Connection Records — requiring ISPs to store every website every UK citizen visits for 12 months. Companies can be served with 'Technical Capability Notices' requiring them to build backdoors or remove encryption.
Any company headquartered in the UK — including Canonical (Ubuntu) — is subject to these powers. Canonical's Snap Store runs as root on millions of machines and auto-updates silently. A Technical Capability Notice could theoretically compel Canonical to push surveillance code via a Snap update. The Investigatory Powers Act makes this legal.
12,000 people were arrested in the UK in 2023 for social media posts — a 58% increase from pre-pandemic. 292 people were charged under the Online Safety Act in its first 14 months. A British Army veteran was arrested for resharing a meme. The UK's Big Brother Watch campaign has called for an independent review of speech-related arrests.