By now, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of weeks, you know about the highly controversial SOPA/PIPA Acts being pushed in Congress. Many are upset over these proposals and their potential negative impact on the internet. However, in an unprecedented showing of “online activism” Wednesday, it looks like their cries of foul have not fallen on deaf ears. Aside from Wikipedia’s much publicized “Blackout,” other technology giants like Google, Mozilla, and Craigslist joined the fray in their own personal way. Here were some of the results of Wednesday’s actions, according to a CIO.com article:
-4.5 million people signed Google’s anti-SOPA/PIPA petition, according to the Los Angeles Times
-25 Senators now oppose PIPA (the Senate version of SOPA), according to OpenCongress
-Twitter saw more than 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets between midnight and 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday
-Two SOPA co-sponsors and several others dropped support for the House bill
-More than 162 million people saw Wikipedia’s protest page
-More than 8 million people used Wikipedia’s search tool to look up their elected representatives’ contact information
While many are calling the protests a success only time will truly tell the story. The plan, as of now, is to move forward with this anti-piracy legislation. The Senate will vote again on PIPA next Tuesday, January 24th.
****Update****
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he is postponing Tuesday’s PIPA vote.
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