A petition is a much lower effort action than a protest. People motivated enough to protest in person probably represent a stronger opinion base than people merely motivated enough to sign a petition.
That's generally true. In this case, it's a petition about a national security law, so does that still hold? I would say that anybody signing support for a national security law has to be mad (under normal circumstances), no matter how easy it is to put down a signature.
I was offered a bag ~10 surgical masks or a hand sanitizer a few months ago in return for signing that petition by people waiting at the entrance to my apartment building. At this time there was a huge scramble for masks which were in short supply. I'm not disputing the law or the level of support but I feel there were some flaws in the signature collection process.
