An interesting side note to the White House’s experiment in digital engagement, We the People, is that the petition site has proved as or more popular among non-Americans as among the “people” of its title.
Japanese and Korean citizens took to the site in 2012, for example, to air a host of grievances including whether the water body between the two nations should be called the Yellow Sea or the Sea of Japan.
Now, just over 30 days after the Obama administration raised the bar to receive an official White House petition response to 100,000 signatures in one month, all three petitions to cross the raised threshold focus on non-American conflicts.
Two of the petitions come from the tiny nation of Azerbaijan and its diaspora. Both deal with the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh border region. A third petition asks the U.S. government to seek sanctions against Dutch officials who petitioners claim are responsible for the death of Russian political activist Alexander Dolmatov.
Joseph Marks
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
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