Petition To Kick Out Internet Explorer 6 From Public Sector Goes Live

A petition has been started on the UK government's official petition site to encourage the public sector to move away from Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 to a more secure platform.

The petition, the brainchild of Dan Frydman, managing director of web publishing contractor Inigo Media Ltd and possibly one that knows all too much about the shortcomings of IE6 in the public sector, reads "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6"

At the time of writing nearly 2,500 people had signed it, up from 800 a couple of hours before and a mere 44 at 11am when BBC first announced its existence to a national audience.

Mr Frydman points to the fact that the French and German government have encouraged their own citizens to move away from Internet Explorer 6.

He added that "Most creative and software development companies are forced by government department clients to build websites for IE6 when most of the industry has moved on.”

Article continues after advert

The UK Government however has been very clear in its stance, saying that it continue to support Internet Explorer 6 with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office, Lord West of Spithead, saying that "There is no evidence that moving from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer is any less secure than other browsers."

Oddly though, the DoH has advised the NHS to move away from the nine-year old browser as soon as possible because of the continued risks involved when using Windows XP and IE6 at the same time.