If you haven’t heard about the Internet Blackout set for Wednesday, January 18, 2012, you must be living under a rock, or you are from another planet (I kid 🙂 ).
Tomorrow you might be in for a rude awakening if you try to access your favorite websites. That is because they WON’T be there. They will be taken down for the entire day. It’s just to give you an idea of what the Internet would be like if the two bills, SOPA and PIPA, get passed.
Some confirmed websites that will not be available during the blackout include;
Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, Green Peace International, Imgur, TwitPic, Free Press, Minecraft, the entire icanhazCheezburger Network (Fail Blog, Very Demotivational…) and WordPress. I am not sure if that includes blogs that are on WordPress (mine is a WordPress blog).
These are just SOME of the companies that will be participating in the blackout tomorrow. Some suspect possibly Facebook and Twitter, but they have not confirmed that. I am pretty sure Twitter will be up and running tomorrow.
I know some blogs are going dark tomorrow as well. Keep in mind this will be a SMALL sampling of what the Internet will be like if SOPA and PIPA pass.
There is a lot of informaiton about both acts available on the Internet. Here are a few links that explains more about them.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248298/sopa_and_pipa_just_the_facts.html
http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-pipa
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/how-sopa-pipa-can-affect-you.
It’s best that you take to the Internet and Google them to learn more. In fact Google has a link on it’s home page where you can tell Congress NOT to censor the web and freedom of speech.
Basically the government wants to do MORE then just stop piracy – they want to control the entire Internet. If the bills pass there will be no YouTube. You could be fine – OR JAILED – if you post a video of your 3 year old singing a Taylor Swift song on Facebook. If someone so much as utters a complaint about you, or a SPAM person leaves a comment on your site with a link to an illegal site – YOU WILL BE WIPED OFF THE FACE OF THE INTERNET! The government will wipe your website or online account off the map, never to be seen again.
There is a lot more to them but I thought I’d give you some basic ideas.
I’m all for stopping piracy and the bad things that go on around the Internet, but this is taking it to the extreme. MILLIONS of websites will be removed from the Internet, and that includes businesses. MILLIONS of people will be out of work. The economy will take a serious nose dive. I’m thinking along the lines of the Great Depression.
There is so much garbage going on with our country that needs to be addressed like homeless people, hunger, drug abuse, education… Does the government REALLY need to waste valuable time and resources to shut down someone’s personal blog because she has a picture of her daughter wearing a Mickey Mouse (copyrighted image) t-shirt? GIVE ME A BREAK!
What are your thoughts about this? Are you planning on going dark tomorrow?
Kimberly
And for the confused, this bill is on its way to Congress. Not all government officials support it. I don’t know what I’d do if it passed.
This would be a sad day for me, I live on the internet. I know I am addicted ..this will be a definite eye opener for me tomorrow.
I agree with Jill… I am in for a rude awakening should my “drug” supply suddenly be snatched away by “The Man.” hahaha. I kid, but seriously. Most people rely on the internet for SOOOOO much. And without it, their world will come crashing down. Literally. Jobs will be lost, communication between families disrupted, memories and basically entire life stories wiped clean. Hello, Big Brother. I shudder when I think at what society is turning into. It’s absolutely frightening.
Congress has the time and money to listen and yay/nay this with out the people’s approval but they don’t have the funding or time to pay the military (Marines are freezing a lot of re enlistments and decreasing numbers), the gov’t workers (even tax season under way and department of treasure has a pay freeze on employees), children dying at the hands of their abusive parents due to lack of investigation and punishment (parenting classes is a joke), and school districts are cutting important educational activities due to sever budget cuts. Our own president and congress agree with opening back slaughter horses in the US.
Clearly thias is about control over people fuelled by greed.
These bills are ridiculous. They hurt the entrepreuners, the small business owners and the fun-lovers the most.
I’ve posted the link to the petition on my facebook page and I sent an email to my state rep through many of the available websites as well.
Everyone should flood their state reps emails with requests to oppose these bills!
Wow! I must live on another planet. i didn’t know anything about this Seems very wrong! And no way it could pass. But there will always be a Big Brother everywhere you go no matter what.
-Misty
Sometimes the govewmwment gets things way wrong who is advising them ??? someone fixing to make millions from the scheme I’m sure
I agree- this is far from the most important issue that should be focused on. Pretty soon, the US is going to look like communist China with all these ridiculous bills passing in the House & Congress. Glad the president doesn’t support this bill.
Can you believe the internet community response?! That was SO cool. I heard that the bigwigs behind the bill went from 5 being opposed to I think 35? How great is that?! I wasn’t happy losing Wikipedia for a day but it’s well worth it to keep from losing it forever.
This blackout caused me some problems. I dont agree
with it. Lets hope it doesnt pass thru in congress