SOPA, PIPA, and Other Internet-Crippling Acronyms

Over the past few months, numerous bloggers, companies, and industry leaders have come out in force to protest SOPA and PIPA (the highly controversial bills that threaten to make Internet censorship a reality in the U.S.). Each of these protesters has already listed one or more of the potentially catastrophic consequences associated with these two pieces of legislation (look here and here) so I won’t waste my words beating a dead horse (in case those previous links didn’t get the point across, you can also look here, here, and here). Instead, I’d like to focus on what’s currently being done to bring awareness to this situation and offer concrete steps that you can take to help prevent these bills from going into effect.

The Anti-SOPA Protest

As you are reading this, numerous sites are actively engaged in a protest against SOPA (and PIPA). At midnight (all times are in EST), Wikipedia initiated a 24-hour blackout. Consequently, if you attempt to visit their site during this blackout period, you will be greeted with information on how to contact your Congressional representatives and voice your opposition to these bills (I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so). A little after midnight, Google also kicked off an Anti-SOPA campaign by unveiling a blacked-out (i.e., censored) logo on their front page. If you click on the logo, you are directed to an informational page, which includes an online petition against these bills (please take a moment to add your name to this petition).

But it hasn’t stopped there. WordPress is also in the middle of a blackout. Their site currently contains an informational video as well as numerous forms for contacting Congress to oppose these bills (including an international petition for people outside of the U.S.). At 8a, Reddit will be the next major site to initiate a blackout, and others are expected to follow suit throughout the course of the day.

What You Can Do To Help

If you would like to voice your opposition to SOPA and PIPA, you have a variety of options. The easiest (and most effective) option involves contacting your Congressional representatives and demanding that they vote NO on these bills. Another option is to join the current online protest by blacking out your website. If you are a WordPress user, you can use one of their SOPA blackout plugins. Alternatively, if you are a CloudFlare user, you can use the “CloudFlare Stop Censorship” app. You can also implement your own blackout with a 503 HTTP status code (read Pierre Far’s post for more details). Finally, if none of these options are hardcore enough, you can always join a good old fashioned offline protest (they’re currently mobilizing in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle… but don’t let that limit you; feel free to protest in your local area as well).

No matter what you choose to do, the important thing is that you choose to do something. The future of the Internet truly depends on the outcome of these bills, and we need your support to make sure they don’t get passed in Congress. Use your voice to fight Internet censorship… before your voice is silenced!