On Jan 18th, most sites will go dark to protest the internet censorship bills. The majority of us whose reading this blog do not live in the US and yet, the most influential providers and services are US based so it affects us all.
I’m sure most of you hadn’t heard it before, SOPA. What is SOPA?
You probably googling and have heard by now. Known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
This legislation is backed by major American media companies would allow the Justice Department to seek a court order requiring US search engines to scrub certain results from the sites, among other antipiracy measures.
“This bill is poorly constructed, quite dangerous and won’t actually address the real problem of piracy. Internet policy shouldn’t be set by Hollywood.” said Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, in an interview.
Well, at least Wikipedia has joined the strike. It’s our duty to do the best we can to make sure SOPA does not get passed. How to participate? Sign the Petition. Add your site to the list, and spread the word. It takes less than 5 minutes of your time to petition.
Influential sites that have NOT yet joined the blackout/strike :
Google
Facebook
Twitter
being the most relevant, I would personally like to see the strong impact if they join the strike.
And once you’re done signing up yourself, do send the link to as many friends you can.
