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Here's one form of protest I'd like to see: Assuming Google wants to take a significant stance against this bill, they're in a unique position to raise people'
by domador 15y ago
Here's one form of protest I'd like to see:
Assuming Google wants to take a significant stance against this bill, they're in a unique position to raise people's awareness of its awfulness. They could put some text on the Google homepage and/or a link to a protest page informing Americans about this threat. (Google might need to set up their own page, to avoid overwhelming an external site with traffic.) Other creative possibilities come to mind:
- Changing the "I'm feeling lucky" button to "I'm feeling very unlucky" and linking to the protest page
- Posting a terrifying, yet appealing Google Doodle that links and lures users to the protest page
- Announcing and then holding a scheduled, minute-long search outage, where all search traffic is redirected to the protest page (which would include an explanation of why searches were temporarily redirected)
Technically savvy users might be aware of SOPA and the threat it poses, yet the "average" American is probably unaware of what their elected representatives are doing to their digital future. They need to know, and hold their representatives accountable.
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Disclaimer: I am not an American, but feel a need to speak up, given the huge effect U.S. law has on the whole Internet.
- truthout 15y agoYeah, then they get sued by the DOJ over its monopoly in search. It's not as easy as it sounds.
- roc 15y agoI'd much rather see a large organized event by individual web sites than unilateral action by Google. Not least among my reasons being that I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Google to act.
- joeyh 15y agoI remember a broad campaign of website blackouts, blue ribbons, etc, to protest the DMCA in 1998. Which accomplished approximatly nothing except raising general awareness I'm afraid.
- yuhong 15y agoLuckily, Silicon Valley is a much stronger lobby today.
- akdetrick 15y agoIn all of the news and outcry surrounding SOPA, this is the most puzzling thing. I would be surprised to learn that the lobby of those in support of this bill is stronger than of those against. Unless I'm wrong about the relative strength of these opposing lobbies, it hardly makes sense that SOPA seems to have so much traction among legislators.
- roc 15y agoRaising general awareness is an accomplishment worth pursuing.
- domador 15y agoFYI, I've submitted these ideas to Google. I'm hoping that one way or another they'll oppose SOPA in significant ways.