Today, many website owners and users voiced their opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) being debated in U.S. Congress. Many sites voiced their disapproval in the form of a 24-hour “blackout”.
For the English version of Wikipedia, this involved a redirected page with a brief message about blacking out the website and urging users to contact their congressional representatives. Google, as it does for just about anything else, expressed itself by placing a black bar over the word “Google” on its search page. The homepage for Craigslist was replaced with a message that read, “Imagine a world without craigslist, Wikipedia, Google, [your favorite sites here]…News Corp, RIAA, MPAA, Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA & others want to make that world your reality.”
Other sites in protest include Reddit and the Internet Archive. Some sites, however, remained open, but many of them still posted messages in opposition to SOPA. Some took it as an opportunity to educate people about what the Internet would be like if the government could censor websites, which is exactly what opponents of SOPA fear might one day happen if it or similar legislation becomes law.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created an “activism platform” to help web users organize against attempts to create Internet blacklists, such as the ones proposed in SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
The blackouts started at midnight last night and are expected to last until midnight tonight, but as the EFF points out, these blackouts are only the beginning.
“We’re also gearing up for a day of action on January 23rd when the Senate will be back in session and getting ready to vote on the Protect-IP Act, SOPA’s sister bill. We’re calling on digital activists and Internet users everywhere to call Senators on the 24th and voice their opposition to this censorship legislation.”
