The United Kingdom branch of the political Pirate Party has taken its highly unorthodox political methods to social news site Reddit.
The Pirate Party sounds like a chapter out of a Peter Pan book. But the loosely structured political party, with its radical stances on individual rights and copyright laws, has become serious business in Europe since it was formed in 2010. Last month, the Berlin branch won 15 positions in Germany’s regional elections.
On Reddit, the U.K. branch recently launched its own section, Policy 2011, where they invite users to suggest and debate policy ideas and vote on which ones matter most.
In an interview with The Next Web UK, Pirate Party head Loz Kaye noted that the party has had trouble formulating clear policies beyond Internet and privacy laws. In that light, Policy 2011 seems a clear attempt to use Reddit’s unique voting system to weigh public opinion—a modern (and anonymous) way to poll the public.
For its part, the party says the page will be to use “page to find out what you think and what you want to see from us.”
Right now, that amounts to everything from a request to support nuclear power (“I do not agree with nuclear power. I do not wish to ever see a repeat of what happened in Japan,” replied one redditor) to legalizing marijuana (a proposition popular in most sections of Reddit).
The section only has 90 readers so far—hardly enough to represent most of the group’s supporters. But they’ll be keeping the section open until Nov. 3.
And when it’s over, Reddit may well have determined the future policy decisions of a burgeoning political party.
Photo by StrangeInterlude
