The blackout has started, with the most popular site being Wikipedia. Other sites have also done the same, blocking/lessening any user interaction for the most of January 18, 2012. Notable sites participating in the blackout: Google, Wordpress, Reddit, Mozilla, and many more. For a more detailed list: check here.
The strike is to fight against two bills proposed by US legislators: the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). When the SOPA was first introduced, it was met with very negative reactions, mainly from the web community.
SOPA, as it name entails, aims to stop online piracy but many believe that this is not actually going to do that. As I'm not really good at reading laws, or just lazy to do it. I'm gonna redirect you to http://blog.reddit.com/, which is part of the strike. The homepage shows an article on what they believe about the effects of passing SOPA and PIPA
Most people are unaware of the fact that SOPA can be damaging to the global community that is the internet. Casual users that go online for social media sites like facebook and twitter might not have the luxury on doing so. SOPA, as I've read, violates the First Amendment which prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. With freedom of speech most affected.
If passed, search engines might have to censor links to other websites. Some websites might not be available to go to. And any site with at least a page of "infringement" could be gone for good. Well, until they make another one. Streaming media can also be considered a crime, this is a very big deal to frequent YouTube goers.
This mostly affects the United States. But with the US considered to be a leader in the world, other countries are bound to follow suit, enacting similar laws. To have a clearer image of what this will be like, this will be like living in China, a communist country.
I, personally, am having trouble in writing this post. Not having the backing of my usual knowledge-to-go site, Wikipedia, I've come to realize at how much I've relied on the site. But that's what it's for, it's for the community. Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, was in a good place starting this website. And I fear if SOPA is made law, internet websites won't have the luxury of booming like others did.
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| Wikipedia on Jan 18, 2012, 24 hours of darkness |
Casual users may not appreciate acting against this right now, but if and when social media starts getting censored, they'll have a more active role. By then, it would be a little too late. So, start fighting against SOPA and PIPA now.
Censorship is a ████ .
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LOL, I get how stop SOPA sounds stupid. (Stop, stop..)
Do your part now!
Links to oppose SOPA: (most of the petitions are for US residents only, but you can still help)
http://americancensorship.org/modal/state-dept-petition/index.html
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
http://stopcensorship.org/
If you have a facebook, twitter account or on any other social media account, say something about SOPA, raise awareness.
Click here to change your profile picture to show your for stopping SOPA.http://blackoutsopa.org/goddre
#sopastrike #stopsopa
Further reading:
http://blog.reddit.com/
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112s968
BTW, it's possible to circumvent the Wikipedia blackout, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_SOPA_blackout/Technical_FAQ%20
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