6 ms·

Here is what I recommend: Facebook, google, youtube and wikipedia should take down their sites and replace them with a message about SOPA all on the same day.

by jxcole 15y ago

Here is what I recommend: Facebook, google, youtube and wikipedia should take down their sites and replace them with a message about SOPA all on the same day. But it shouldn't end there. They should also personally attack each of the original progenators in the Senate/House of the bill. Their political careers need to end that day. It's not enough to simply stop this bill. If they do, another will be enacted pretty soon with pretty much the same problems. Politicians need to understand that if they take on the internet and choose record labels over their own constituents they cannot expect support from their own political base.

rorrr 15y ago
They don't even need to take down the sites. Just some brief description of the problem at the top of every page, and the names of the local politicians who support it. If Google does it, this bill will die in a few hours and this shit will never come up again.
- ImprovedSilence 15y ago
  Yeah, the most effective measure would just be a censored page with a call to action with a pointer to their local representatives. Calling your politicians is vastly effective, if you can get a small fraction of the country calling their reps. Just censoring the page isn't enough, you need to inspire action among the voters!
- wanorris 15y ago
  Tumblr is hardly Google or Facebook, and they were able to generate massive grassroots political response, mainly through a banner. Any kind of coordinated action by major internet sites could generate the kind of response that I doubt Congress has ever seen before.
- cjfont 15y ago
  If they haven't done it, I'm sure there's a good reason since I'm sure it's at least crossed their minds. Such a move would show what Google et al. are capable of, and that might scare more than just SOPA supporters.
- stfu 15y ago
  This would be absolutely great! EFF should coordinate some black-out-the-web day. I hope that Twitter and Google have still enough spark to stand up for causes like that. This would finally provide an opportunity to use geo IP targeting for a meaningful purpose and directing people to take local action. Pick it, Freeze it, Personalize it!
  - Shenglong 15y ago
    I actually would not know what to do, if Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia all blacked out for a day. I just asked myself this, and I came up with several responses which all have problems: 1. I'd go outside and do something -> But I can't use Facebook to coordinate anything. 2. I'd go out and eat -> I can't google places to eat, or google map where they are. 3. I'd just absorb information -> Oh wait... Twitter and Wikipedia are down. Fml.
    - rorrr 15y ago
      Seriously? There are 100 million of other websites. You can use a phone to coordinate something. You can go out and eat at a place you went to before.
    - darklajid 15y ago
      Please tell me that this was tongue in cheek talk. I felt so sad when I read these points and really hope you have a life without these services.
    - tdfx 15y ago
      Up vote from me. I thought it was funny. In fact, I might even know some people who would suffer through the cycle you described.
  - jacquesm 15y ago
    Correction, the web is a lot larger than the United States and I'd really dislike it if internal political discussions of the United States were used to 'black out the web'. The business dealings of the rest of the world should not be collateral damage because of one nations political affairs. So if you're going to use 'geo ip targetting' to make things local I'd suggest you use the same mechanism to give a free pass to those from other countries.
firefoxman1 15y ago
"another will be enacted pretty soon with pretty much the same problems." And people's enthusiasm to fight the bill will shrink next time around too. It's just like how people donate to a cause a few times around, but eventually get tired of it.
- TheEzEzz 15y ago
  That's why it's important to single out individual senators supporting the bill. Then the response is no longer a slap on the wrist to Congress.
wdr1 15y ago
>They should also personally attack each of the original progenators in the Senate/House of the bill. That will never work; it was a bipartisan group. The only way things are done in American are if either a union or corporation pays for it, or if there's politician gain in attacking the other party.
- brmj 15y ago
  Not really. At this point unions don't have enough money or membership to do much more than try to maintain their own existence.
joe_the_user 15y ago
Google, Youtube and wikipedia I can see. Facebook isn't just an information source, it is a communication medium. It would be like removing someone's email access for a day. For some, this might be a vacation, but for others, it would result in the failure of time-dependent project, which is not something that would win coverts to any cause.
- joejohnson 15y ago
  You put Facebook as the most important on that list? I'm not trying to say it wouldn't severely impact people if Facebook were down for a day, but I can't imagine not being able to use google or wikipedia for a day. This would definitely result in many failures of time-dependent projects.
  - corin_ 15y ago
    I do agree with you completely, but to play devil's advocate: - Youtube down, go on another video site or wait a day, who cares - Google down, use bing/yahoo - Wikipedia down, can likely find content in a cache (less easy but often very doable if Google is also down), if not the majority of Wikipedia users could wait a day and not have it do much harm. I use Wikipedia daily, but if I had to go a single day without it, it wouldn't really have a negative impact on me, just be slightly annoying. Or, find information on other sites, books, etc. - Facebook down, there's no alternative. You can't just move over to Diaspora for a day. This is the only one where it being down for a day means you lose that functionality completely for a day.
    - nostrademons 15y ago
      When Facebook's down, I use GMail. Or G+. Or LiveJournal. Or my Amherst-only social network. Or text messages. Or call my friends up on the phone, or talk to them at work, or walk over to their apartment and knock on their door. Do people really only have one communications media? I find that with anyone that I actually talk to on a regular basis, I talk to regularly on at least 3 different communications media, often simultaneously. (I'm pretty fond of taking Facebook conversations offline to text message when I need to say something private, for instance, or to GChat when I want something a little more real-time.)
OmarIsmail 15y ago
I believe this is what they call "raising the stakes" and the consequences of this may not be what you want/expect. In fact, taking such an aggressive move may hasten the very thing you're trying to prevent. Let me elaborate. Right now most politicians in the US are pretty out of touch with the Internet, that much we can all agree on. They hear that it's powerful, and they have young staff members saying how the Facebooks and the Twitters are necessary nowadays, but it's easy for the regular politician to not really buy into the hype. Despite that politicians (and nefarious people in influential positions) aren't really happy with the Internet and the whole open thing. Which is precisely why we're getting SOPA. Now, US politician attacks have thus far been limited media copyright and piracy, dabbling a little bit into privacy with the Facebook stuff. These are easy targets. Now, if these sites take this kind of action, and has the kind of effect that you want - namely kicking these politicians out - you don't think every other politician is going to learn a very big lesson. And I'd hope that we plebes have also learned a lesson. When politicians/people in power have a "threat" that they are actually vulnerable to, they don't respect it and learn to co-exist. Instead they try to destroy, co-op, or otherwise remove it as a threat. Maybe I'm being cynical/pessimistic, but given the history of humanity and the way people in power behave, I think I have reason to be.
- idonthack 15y ago
  So your solution is to let them shut us down now, lest they be determined to shut us down in the future? Wake up. You're late. Politicians have already learned the lesson that you fear they will learn, and they are right now taking the action that you hope they won't take in the future.
- smokeyj 15y ago
  > When politicians/people in power have a "threat" that they are actually vulnerable to, they don't respect it and learn to co-exist. Instead they try to destroy, co-op, or otherwise remove it as a threat. You're right, SOPA is an attempt to destroy the internet. This is a flat-out attack on the internet as we know it, and I bet the middle east uprising had something to do with it.
- jballanc 15y ago
plink 15y ago
>Their political careers need to end that day. Yes, so they can forthwith proceed to the lobbyist phase of their careers.
- CamperBob 15y ago
  (Shrug) They can lobby all they want. The goal is to make this sort of legislation a "third rail" -- touch it and your career dies instantly. (Social Security being the classic example.)
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
mduerksen 15y ago
Their political careers need to end that day. I strongly hope this will happen, especially for the sake of non-US countries like mine. There are a lot of comments saying that the blackout should spare non-US countries as it does not affect us. For those who feel this way, please read holmesworcesters comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 Not only the USA is pressing hard to "control" the internet. Similar attempts will be made in the EU, in fact, one is already underway. See ACTA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agree... If Wikipedia and hopefully Google would really replace their site for one day, it would raise the peoples awareness to such issues dramatically. And if some American politicians lose their jobs over it, some European politicians will keep that in mind when the next "Anti-Internet-Law" (of course it would never be called that way) is proposed.
- rospaya 15y ago
  > There are a lot of comments saying that the blackout should spare non-US countries as it does not affect us. For those who feel this way, please read holmesworcesters comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 But there's nothing we (non-US citizens) can do about it. Any noise we make means nothing to US politicians who are accountable only to the American people, and sometimes it looks not even to them. Don't make the rest of us suffer for bad choices made by US voters.
  - mduerksen 15y ago
    Endure one single day of blacked-out Wikipedia and Google, and gain significantly better negotiation positions when it comes to our own law-making processes. To me, that's a small sacrifice that can be really rewarding.
xtracto 15y ago
I was thinking the same. I would propose to have a "404" day in which all websites that do not like SOPA replace every page with a 404 "Not Found" explaining how such a law could impact their services. It could even be up for about 8 hours between around 9am and 5am within USA time (CST or MST, or any other).
- tejaswiy 15y ago
  I think a tempered approach with all the sites blacking out their logos in protest to SOPA and redirecting to a page that details why SOPA is wrong in an accessible way is the way to go.

by jxcole 15y ago

rorrr 15y ago

They don't even need to take down the sites. Just some brief description of the problem at the top of every page, and the names of the local politicians who support it. If Google does it, this bill will die in a few hours and this shit will never come up again.

ImprovedSilence 15y ago
Yeah, the most effective measure would just be a censored page with a call to action with a pointer to their local representatives. Calling your politicians is vastly effective, if you can get a small fraction of the country calling their reps. Just censoring the page isn't enough, you need to inspire action among the voters!
wanorris 15y ago
Tumblr is hardly Google or Facebook, and they were able to generate massive grassroots political response, mainly through a banner. Any kind of coordinated action by major internet sites could generate the kind of response that I doubt Congress has ever seen before.
cjfont 15y ago
If they haven't done it, I'm sure there's a good reason since I'm sure it's at least crossed their minds. Such a move would show what Google et al. are capable of, and that might scare more than just SOPA supporters.
stfu 15y ago
This would be absolutely great! EFF should coordinate some black-out-the-web day. I hope that Twitter and Google have still enough spark to stand up for causes like that. This would finally provide an opportunity to use geo IP targeting for a meaningful purpose and directing people to take local action. Pick it, Freeze it, Personalize it!
- Shenglong 15y ago
  I actually would not know what to do, if Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia all blacked out for a day. I just asked myself this, and I came up with several responses which all have problems: 1. I'd go outside and do something -> But I can't use Facebook to coordinate anything. 2. I'd go out and eat -> I can't google places to eat, or google map where they are. 3. I'd just absorb information -> Oh wait... Twitter and Wikipedia are down. Fml.
  - rorrr 15y ago
    Seriously? There are 100 million of other websites. You can use a phone to coordinate something. You can go out and eat at a place you went to before.
  - darklajid 15y ago
    Please tell me that this was tongue in cheek talk. I felt so sad when I read these points and really hope you have a life without these services.
  - tdfx 15y ago
    Up vote from me. I thought it was funny. In fact, I might even know some people who would suffer through the cycle you described.
- jacquesm 15y ago
  Correction, the web is a lot larger than the United States and I'd really dislike it if internal political discussions of the United States were used to 'black out the web'. The business dealings of the rest of the world should not be collateral damage because of one nations political affairs. So if you're going to use 'geo ip targetting' to make things local I'd suggest you use the same mechanism to give a free pass to those from other countries.

firefoxman1 15y ago

"another will be enacted pretty soon with pretty much the same problems." And people's enthusiasm to fight the bill will shrink next time around too. It's just like how people donate to a cause a few times around, but eventually get tired of it.

TheEzEzz 15y ago
That's why it's important to single out individual senators supporting the bill. Then the response is no longer a slap on the wrist to Congress.

wdr1 15y ago

>They should also personally attack each of the original progenators in the Senate/House of the bill. That will never work; it was a bipartisan group. The only way things are done in American are if either a union or corporation pays for it, or if there's politician gain in attacking the other party.

brmj 15y ago
Not really. At this point unions don't have enough money or membership to do much more than try to maintain their own existence.

joe_the_user 15y ago

Google, Youtube and wikipedia I can see. Facebook isn't just an information source, it is a communication medium. It would be like removing someone's email access for a day. For some, this might be a vacation, but for others, it would result in the failure of time-dependent project, which is not something that would win coverts to any cause.

joejohnson 15y ago
You put Facebook as the most important on that list? I'm not trying to say it wouldn't severely impact people if Facebook were down for a day, but I can't imagine not being able to use google or wikipedia for a day. This would definitely result in many failures of time-dependent projects.
- corin_ 15y ago
  I do agree with you completely, but to play devil's advocate: - Youtube down, go on another video site or wait a day, who cares - Google down, use bing/yahoo - Wikipedia down, can likely find content in a cache (less easy but often very doable if Google is also down), if not the majority of Wikipedia users could wait a day and not have it do much harm. I use Wikipedia daily, but if I had to go a single day without it, it wouldn't really have a negative impact on me, just be slightly annoying. Or, find information on other sites, books, etc. - Facebook down, there's no alternative. You can't just move over to Diaspora for a day. This is the only one where it being down for a day means you lose that functionality completely for a day.
  - nostrademons 15y ago
    When Facebook's down, I use GMail. Or G+. Or LiveJournal. Or my Amherst-only social network. Or text messages. Or call my friends up on the phone, or talk to them at work, or walk over to their apartment and knock on their door. Do people really only have one communications media? I find that with anyone that I actually talk to on a regular basis, I talk to regularly on at least 3 different communications media, often simultaneously. (I'm pretty fond of taking Facebook conversations offline to text message when I need to say something private, for instance, or to GChat when I want something a little more real-time.)

OmarIsmail 15y ago

I believe this is what they call "raising the stakes" and the consequences of this may not be what you want/expect. In fact, taking such an aggressive move may hasten the very thing you're trying to prevent. Let me elaborate. Right now most politicians in the US are pretty out of touch with the Internet, that much we can all agree on. They hear that it's powerful, and they have young staff members saying how the Facebooks and the Twitters are necessary nowadays, but it's easy for the regular politician to not really buy into the hype. Despite that politicians (and nefarious people in influential positions) aren't really happy with the Internet and the whole open thing. Which is precisely why we're getting SOPA. Now, US politician attacks have thus far been limited media copyright and piracy, dabbling a little bit into privacy with the Facebook stuff. These are easy targets. Now, if these sites take this kind of action, and has the kind of effect that you want - namely kicking these politicians out - you don't think every other politician is going to learn a very big lesson. And I'd hope that we plebes have also learned a lesson. When politicians/people in power have a "threat" that they are actually vulnerable to, they don't respect it and learn to co-exist. Instead they try to destroy, co-op, or otherwise remove it as a threat. Maybe I'm being cynical/pessimistic, but given the history of humanity and the way people in power behave, I think I have reason to be.

idonthack 15y ago
So your solution is to let them shut us down now, lest they be determined to shut us down in the future? Wake up. You're late. Politicians have already learned the lesson that you fear they will learn, and they are right now taking the action that you hope they won't take in the future.
smokeyj 15y ago
> When politicians/people in power have a "threat" that they are actually vulnerable to, they don't respect it and learn to co-exist. Instead they try to destroy, co-op, or otherwise remove it as a threat. You're right, SOPA is an attempt to destroy the internet. This is a flat-out attack on the internet as we know it, and I bet the middle east uprising had something to do with it.
jballanc 15y ago

plink 15y ago

>Their political careers need to end that day. Yes, so they can forthwith proceed to the lobbyist phase of their careers.

CamperBob 15y ago
(Shrug) They can lobby all they want. The goal is to make this sort of legislation a "third rail" -- touch it and your career dies instantly. (Social Security being the classic example.)

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

mduerksen 15y ago

Their political careers need to end that day. I strongly hope this will happen, especially for the sake of non-US countries like mine. There are a lot of comments saying that the blackout should spare non-US countries as it does not affect us. For those who feel this way, please read holmesworcesters comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 Not only the USA is pressing hard to "control" the internet. Similar attempts will be made in the EU, in fact, one is already underway. See ACTA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agree... If Wikipedia and hopefully Google would really replace their site for one day, it would raise the peoples awareness to such issues dramatically. And if some American politicians lose their jobs over it, some European politicians will keep that in mind when the next "Anti-Internet-Law" (of course it would never be called that way) is proposed.

rospaya 15y ago
> There are a lot of comments saying that the blackout should spare non-US countries as it does not affect us. For those who feel this way, please read holmesworcesters comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235431 But there's nothing we (non-US citizens) can do about it. Any noise we make means nothing to US politicians who are accountable only to the American people, and sometimes it looks not even to them. Don't make the rest of us suffer for bad choices made by US voters.
- mduerksen 15y ago
  Endure one single day of blacked-out Wikipedia and Google, and gain significantly better negotiation positions when it comes to our own law-making processes. To me, that's a small sacrifice that can be really rewarding.

xtracto 15y ago

I was thinking the same. I would propose to have a "404" day in which all websites that do not like SOPA replace every page with a 404 "Not Found" explaining how such a law could impact their services. It could even be up for about 8 hours between around 9am and 5am within USA time (CST or MST, or any other).

tejaswiy 15y ago
I think a tempered approach with all the sites blacking out their logos in protest to SOPA and redirecting to a page that details why SOPA is wrong in an accessible way is the way to go.