A storm of internet activism is rising against the Australian Government’s attempt to force the mandatory retention of telecoms data.

Greens MP Scott Ludlam has called for citizens of the online community to create whatever message they can to protest new policies which greatly increase the depth that spy agencies are allowed to probe into the lives of everyday people.

Mr Ludlam has described warrants allowed under legislation passed last week as allowing “ASIO to monitor traffic, but also take up residence, copy and paste files, install malware, cover their tracks, and basically do whatever they feel like, on any device anywhere, whether or not you’re suspected of any crime.”

While many are unconcerned at the wholesale harvesting of their information, this TED Talk and this disturbing interview show that simple metadata can be used for much more than just finding out the length of a phone call.  

“Here’s what happened while attention was diverted elsewhere: Parliament kind of banned national security reporting in Australia,” Ludlam says.

“Anyone who discloses a new category of investigation faces prosecution and jail time.

“By stunning coincidence, this happened in the same week as newspaper mastheads were screaming terror, Australian air force jets and special ops soldiers were arriving on the ground at a staging point in the United Arab Emirates, and men with assault weapons stood watch outside Parliament house.”

Now, Mr Ludlam wants to prevent the passage of laws he finds equally offensive, and says there are just a few weeks to make the opposition ring out.

He says that plans to enforce Mandatory Data Retention would make phone and internet companies collect and store everything that devices do on their networks for two years, “so that hundreds of agencies can access huge new warehouses full of your data,” he said.

“Every device, for every person, in real time; from young children to High Court judges, just on the off-chance you might be a person of interest at some time in the future. Same number of needles, hidden in a vastly larger haystack.”

“We have until the week of October 27 to persuade George Brandis to crawl back under his paving slab and leave the internet the hell alone.

“The Greens have been fighting against this arch-stupidity for years

“Labor, we’re not going to let you sit this one out. In order to stand up to people like Tony Abbott and George Brandis you’re going to have to, you know, stand up. Be an opposition. Vote against stuff occasionally even though the Daily Telegraph will spit hate at you and whiz around on the floor like a dying blowfly.”

A Tumblr has been created to showcase the best memes and other content around the #StopDataRetention campaign.

Mr Ludlam says the creator of the most effective content will be flown at his expense to a dinner in the Parliament House dining room, “which will be weird but also kind of fun”, he said.