The rushed process of getting the digital economy bill through Parliament – it had its first reading in the Commons on Tuesday night, having just had its third (and final) reading in the Lords on Monday night – has prompted an angry groundswell of people using 38 Degrees to lobby their MPs to block it.

The newly-created page on the 38 Degrees site lets people find their MP via their postcode, and then email them to demand that the bill gets a proper debate - or is abandoned for this Parliament.

(Disclosure: 38 Degrees is a partner with the Guardian in its digital election coverage.)

As the page puts it, "Peter Mandelson is rushing to force the digital economy Bill into law before the general eection. The draconian law is opposed by industry experts, internet service providers (like TalkTalk and BT), web giants including Google, Yahoo and eBay and even the British Library. Despite all this opposition, the government is trying to rush it through quietly just before the election without proper debate – without a chance for us to voice our opposition. Email your MP now and urge them to stop the government rushing this law through."

It's becoming clear that the bill won't get the proper scrutiny that is required for a bill of this importance due to the rush towards election. If the election is on 6 May, as is widely expected, then parliament will be dissolved on 6 April, meaning that any bills which haven't been passed by then but which are still in process and which the government wants to push through will go to the "wash-up", where they will be processed at top speed without debate through deals done by the whips of the three main parties.

Surprisingly, the Tories, who oppose various elements of the bill such as the £6 per year "landline tax", seem minded to support the passage of the bill. [It doesn't; thanks all who have pointed this out - CA]

Tony Hirst of the Open University asks whether clause 97B - "The High Court (in Scotland, the Court of Session) shall have power to grant an injunction against a service provider, requiring it to prevent access to online locations specified in the order of the Court for the prevention of online copyright infringement" - could be used to block sites like Wikileaks (which after all exists for the reposting of material from organisations - which those organisations could argue is copyrighted). My reading is that it could - and it's no use government saying "oh, but we wouldn't". Bad law isn't made good law by not being used badly; it's made good by actually being well-drafted.

The question now is whether the 38 Degrees action - and any other action that citizens take - will have as much effect as some of the lobbying groups.

As the 38 Degrees page puts it, "There's plenty to oppose in the digital economy bill, it gives the government the ability to disconnect millions. Schools, libraries and businesses could see their connection cut if their pupils, readers of customers infringe any copyright. But one group likes it, the music industry. In a leaked memo a few days ago they admitted the only way to get the bill through would be to rush it through without a real parliamentary debate. Let's stop that happening."

Judging by the number of clickthroughs to the page (more than 3,000 at 12.20pm) and Twitter links to the page, this is proving a popular topic. The key question now: will MPs be listening, will they take action, and will that make any difference? It might be the sort of thing that could win you votes...