Now that Congress has had time to process last week’s internet blackout, a consensus has emerged: SOPA and PIPA are toxic for politicians, and going anywhere near them could cost them their re-election.
Freedom is winning.
Together, we’ve done something amazing– never have so many people stood up to defend a free and open internet. Here’s a San Francisco Chronicle article about how it all came together: The Largest Online Protest in History Started Here.
And here’s Carl Franzen at Talking Points Memo:
“Behind the scenes, Hill staffers from both sides of the aisle confirmed to TPM that the entire piracy debate had become so ‘toxic’ that virtually no lawmakers were likely to be ready to re-engage it anytime soon.”
Experienced Congress-watchers are telling us they’ve never seen anything like this.
Internet users, tech companies, and non-profits joined together to defend fundamental rights on the internet. To a lot of elites in Congress and the corporate world, the internet is just something that lazy teenagers use to spam people with pictures of photoshopped unicorns. The blackout showed that the peer-to-peer internet is about empowerment, and that when we work together we can defeat the corrupt politics of Washington D.C.
The New York Times and Talking Points Memo have both published good articles on how the web blackout was organized.
For months, four senators were the only force blocking passage of PIPA/SOPA. They even promised to filibuster the bill back when most politicians were against them. We need to make sure we support and vote for leaders like them who are willing to going to go out on a limb and oppose SOPA before it was popular to do so. It’s great that we pressured all those other shlubs into opposing web censorship, but these guys deserve the real cred and our support: Click here to donate (scroll down).
What’s next? The Fight is not over, already new threats to web freedom are starting to emerge (particularly in Europe) and we’re getting ready. Stay tuned, and for more updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you again for standing up for a free and open internet!
– Donny and Fight for the Future