SOPA, and Why We’re Not Blacked Out

Jeremy Sapienza, January 17, 2012

Today is the day digital activists protest the Internet-censorship bill known as SOPA by symbolically blacking out their websites. SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a megacorporate-written scheme to “protect” entertainment and media conglomerates’ intellectual property, but it could shut down and otherwise disrupt much of the Internet if properly applied. It’s an attack on free speech.

Antiwar.com backs the blackout protests fully, and we absolutely, unequivocally condemn this hideous bill. But we can’t join in the protest itself. There is simply too much going on in the world to give the War Party a break from our 24/7 scrutiny. And goodness knows they won’t be taking a break.

We will continue providing information on the issue as it progresses.



18 Responses to “SOPA, and Why We’re Not Blacked Out”

  1. haitibabies
    January 17th, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    you should still join the blackout.

  2. paulBass
    January 17th, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    id say the average reader of antiwar.com does not needs some gimmick to oppose state censorship of the internet

  3. Frank
    January 17th, 2012 at 11:04 pm

    Exactly. The blackout is to inform the sheep. They don't read antiwar.com.

  4. kylie
    January 18th, 2012 at 1:54 am

    I agree. they need to be reported 24/7

  5. Skaramouche
    January 18th, 2012 at 3:58 am

    The black-outs are retarded and counter-productive. Firms should make gov't eat it's own medicine and de-link gov't websites en masse. This fucktarded legislation would die overnight.

  6. Duglarri
    January 18th, 2012 at 4:30 am

    I think there's a nuclear option still waiting. All these web sites can pick out your geographic region from your IP number. So what if instead of going black, Google, Reddit, and all the others geo-located the incoming user, and directed those in the constituencies of pro-SOPA politicians to anti-SOPA articles? And then, come election time, put a suggestion on users in those constituencies' pages that they should vote against these politicians?

    I'm curious to see how well Leahy will do in Vermont after a month or so in which every one of his constituents sees "Unelect Leahy" as the banner on Google, every single time they do a search.

    Now THAT might be a trifle of a challenge to democracy as we know it.

  7. Pat
    January 18th, 2012 at 5:56 am

    Hmm Duglarri thats an interesting idea, if that could work it would be a "sugrical strike" to use a
    war monger phrase.

  8. MoT
    January 18th, 2012 at 6:14 am

    "Stop Online Privacy Act". Privacy?…. Ha! This was in jest, no?

  9. Jeremy Sapienza
    January 18th, 2012 at 8:28 am

    HAHA, no! Slip of the fingers… but appropriate I guess. Thanks.

  10. Jeremy Sapienza
    January 18th, 2012 at 8:53 am

    No, we shouldn't, for reasons explained above and below by paulBass

  11. SOPA Blackout Wednesday!
    January 18th, 2012 at 8:59 am

    [...] plugin): What We’re Doing On This PIPA/SOPA Day Of Protest: Keeping You Involved. [↩]SOPA, and Why We’re Not Blacked Out. [...]

  12. voodoo
    January 18th, 2012 at 10:08 am

    Kudos on keeping your eye on the ball!

  13. Jessica
    January 18th, 2012 at 10:11 am

    I was just about to say the same thing – paulBass & Frank hit the nail on the head. And Skaramouche – that’s a clever thought.

  14. Curious
    January 18th, 2012 at 4:34 pm

    If only those sites that are blacked out would redirect their traffic here.

  15. jasonditz
    January 18th, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    we're just not going to let them censor us anyhow. They can try, but as we've seen from the other national examples the US is following (China in particular) there's always a way around it.

  16. HWN
    January 18th, 2012 at 5:02 pm

    They are not. let me explain:
    wikipedia gets 25 million average visitors per day. that means that the SOPA message at the front of their site is getting 25 million views. im sure that not all of those people know or care about SOPA. now they might.
    now throw Google and Reddit and 7000 small sites into the mix and you have massive influence. world changing influence. thats why sopa is dangerous.

  17. Arian
    January 18th, 2012 at 8:25 pm

    Cowards. I’m calling BS!

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