Restore confidence in petition.parliament.uk by using ID verification

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

In 2016 the petition calling for a 2nd EU referendum was confirmed to be hacked. Recently a petition 'revoke article 50' might seems to have an unnaturally high number of signatures. If petition signers had to register and complete ID verification it would restore trust in the system.

Discussion of the 2016 hack in the press:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fears-new-brexit-vote-petition-8286529

Channel 4 confirms it is possible to sign multiple times using fake email addresses
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-is-the-stop-brexit-petition-reliable

A discussion around the 2016 petition with the hacking method and solutions exists here:
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/128422/is-the-uk-parliament-e-petition-system-trustworthy

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

Change petitions rules, so only people with NI numbers are eligible to sign.

In any case, we already monitor petitions to check for fraudulent activity. We use a number of techniques, automated and manual, to identify and block signatures from bots, disposable email addresses or other sources that show signs of fraudulent activity. We also monitor signing patterns. For security reasons, we don’t tell people when their fraudulent activity has been unsuccessful.

We don’t comment in detail about the security measures, but all petitions are subject to checks as part of due diligence and any concerns investigated.

Timeline

26 Mar 2019	Petition opened for signatures
4 Jun 2019	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 4 Jun 2019

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