Where were you during the Internet Blackout?
On January 18th, 2012, there was a massive digital protest — the biggest of it’s kind in history.
It was against two very dangerous bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). If you haven’t heard about it yet … watch this:
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
Check out SOPAStrike.com and AmericanCensorship.org for the essential links and find out how to take action.
Where were you during the blackout?
I’d be interested in hearing what you experienced during the blackout, so please share your side of it in the comments section below. Were you in NYC alongside others protesting in the streets? Did you take any action? Was your blog dark?
Share what happened on your end of things!
The blackout may be over … but the battle is far from it
If you didn’t get the chance to go dark with your own blog, there’s still plenty you can do. Check out the two websites linked above to learn what you can do, then consider spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ using the appropriate hashtags.
If you’re like to change your profile picture to help catch attention, swing by blackoutsopa.org for a quick and easy way to do so.
I created one in PhotoShop a little earlier than I found out about this tool, but had I not I definitely would have used it.
Did the blackout make a difference?
In a word … yes.
Take a look at some of these quick stats.
Christopher Rice is a publisher, entrepreneur, and abstract artist in Santa Monica. He’s a founder of Wearabl, editor of CreativeBlogger, and creator of Gumball. Friend him up at Twitter | Google+ | Facebook | Pinterest |
Maybe I’m mistaken, but wasn’t the bill tabled before the blackout was scheduled to occur? Did the blackout still happen? I mean, I was totally on board, but didn’t we cancel this thing because our objective was reached beforehand?
I think the president curbed it before the blackout, so you could look at that as a small victory; however, it was only curbed.
The black out still happened.
The blackout brought it to the attention of the masses, which in turn expressed negative feelings about the bill. Shortly after, the majority of supporters for the bill switched their stance. I think it was announced later that the author of the bill had withdrawn [factcheck?].