When visiting Wikipedia, Reddit, Wordpress, or Craigslist today, you may notice something out of the ordinary. A blackout has been staged by some of the most popular online communities in protest of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA).
SOPA and PIPA consist of a United States house bill and a senate bill aimed at curbing online piracy and copyright infringement. If passed into law, these bills will place the burden on websites to moderate and censor user content.
So what’s wrong with stopping online piracy?
An organization called Fight for the Future posted a useful video outlining the effects these bills would have on the global Internet community.
As pointed out in the video, these bills will grant the U.S. government and corporations the power to force U.S. Internet providers to block access to websites that are considered an infringement. This means that U.S. web-users would be prevented from visiting certain websites at the discretion of the government.
The impact of SOPA and PIPA would also extend beyond the U.S. to affect foreign websites and users. Blogs, social networks, search engines, and discussion forums, will become vulnerable to lawsuits, forcing them to remove links to these infringing sites and content. This means that search engines like Google will not be permitted to include blacklisted foreign sites in their search results; blacklisted foreign sites will be unable to purchase advertising on U.S. sites; foreign web-users will be limited in their interactions with U.S. sites and their ability to reach U.S. audiences.
Within the TakingITGlobal community, we strive to promote global youth engagement, discussion, and sharing—much of which takes place over the Internet. TIG is a platform that is open to all voices. However, if SOPA and PIPA are passed, sites like TIG could be forced to censor and moderate content posted by our users, or become vulnerable to lawsuits and face blacklisting on major search engines, such as Google.
There are many creative and effective ways to take action in ensuring these bills do not pass. For our American members, find out where your senator stands on the issue. If they are in favour of passing the bills, write them a letter, give them a call, tweet them (#sopa, #pipa, #sopastrike), or send them an email. For the rest of the world, take action by petitioning the U.S. state department and “censoring” your website by placing a black bar over your logo or header.
Now is the time to make your voice heard! Take part in the discussion already happening on TIG and tell members what you think about SOPA and PIPA and sign the petition. You can also stay informed about the progress of the bills by following SOPA and following PIPA online.
And as a side note for those who desperately need access to Wikipedia’s vast depths of knowledge, the folks at Wikipedia have posted directions on how to circumvent the blackout. They just wanted to make sure that their message was heard.
In solidarity,
The TakingITGlobal team
|
