Friday, October 28, 2016

Iceland's Pirate Party Prepares for Power

The party that could be on the cusp of winning Iceland’s national elections on Saturday didn’t exist four years ago.

Its members are a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians and web geeks. It sets policy through online polls – and thinks the government should do the same. It wants to make Iceland “a Switzerland of bits,” free of digital snooping. 

It has offered Edward Snowden a new place to call home. And then there’s the name: in this land of Vikings, the Pirate Party may soon be king...

The Pirates, they say, are less about any specific ideology than they are about a belief that the West’s creaking political systems can be hacked to give citizens a greater say in their democracy. more