Many governments, agencies, and corporations across the globe have enforced mass surveillence on groups of people. This has received pushback as over 500 authors and even 5 nobel prize winners have signed a petition to spark debate and concern about the collection of personal data and overregulation of society. Writer and activist Ilija Trojanow created this petition to protest surveillence on December 13th, 2010, and over 90% of writers asked to sign the petition agreed. The petition is largely a success because the majority of writers and authors value the freedom of expression and they want agencies to respect the rights of the people.

On December 12th, 2009 over 100,000 citizens gathered in Copenhagen to peacefully protest for world leaders to sign a meaningful climate change deal. Unfortunately, these peacuful protesters were attacked by the Danish police and hundreds of protesters were arrested without doing anything illegal. The Danish police have abused their powers and harrassed innocent people on many occasions, so mass petitions have been utilized, and are still being used to this day, to call on the Danish government to investigate the police for violating citizen's human rights. The petitions have been started by a few citizens and are shared to large audeicnes to bring awareness to the current situation and ensure that the Danish government stops police abuse and allows peaceful protests to move on without disturbance.

The Rebel Movement in Egypt collected over 22 million signatures by June 30th, 2013 to remove their (then) current president. The movement wanted to transfer the power that president Mohammed Morsi had to a supreme court with a chief judge. The movement’s volunteers collected signatures focused at universities, and many activists photocopied Idintification Cards to prove the validity of signatures. By keeping track of almost every name and signature, the movement was able to legitimize their cause against a competing petition for the President which had no verification of signatures.