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News Release 26th May 2004BRITAIN COULD BECOME 'PARIAH NATION' IN E-COMMUNITYWith the news that in April 2004, 67.6% of the 840 million emails scanned by MessageLabs were spam emails, Michael Fabricant, Shadow E-Technology Minister has today urged the Government to act fast to prevent Britain becoming the world leader for computer spamming. Michael Fabricant commented: "Spam is deterring businesses and individuals from using the internet. More worryingly, criminal gangs are taking advantage of the Electronic Communications Directive, which became law in December 2003, to make Britain one of the world's fastest- growing sources of spam. "For the first time, Britain is among the top ten originators of spam, which now accounts for about 18 billion daily e-mails around the world. Most recent spam has originated in the United States, as well as China and South Korea. But last month, for the first time, Britain overtook India to become one of the ten main offenders. "This growth in spam in Britain appears to be directly related to the new law, which makes it a criminal offence, punishable by a fine, to send spam to private e-mail addresses after the Information Commissioner has issued an enforcement order. But after lobbying by the marketing industry, the Department of Trade and Industry agreed that business e-mail addresses should be exempted from the law. I believe that this legislation needs to be looked at again if Britain isn't to become a pariah nation amongst the global e-community." |
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