4 ms·

I don't think Google & Facebook need to go dark to achieve this. Going dark is not something either company would do - the cost is enormous and it would draw re

I don't think Google & Facebook need to go dark to achieve this. Going dark is not something either company would do - the cost is enormous and it would draw real ire from politicians. But Google simply changing it's logo for a day would be enough to magnify the publicity around this issue. That doesn't impact their users or their bottom line, but it gets the job done.

pavel_lishin 15y ago
> Going dark is not something either company would do Until someone decides that they're hosting infringing content, of course.
- kevinh 15y ago
  I find it exceedingly hard to believe that Google would be brought down as a repercussion of Google. It's very unlikely that any widespread, powerful websites (like Google or Facebook) would be taken down, because removing them from the ecosystem would prompt an enormous user reaction. Say what you will about the intelligence of those involved with SOPA, they know about how much they can rock the boat.
  - pavel_lishin 15y ago
    > as a repercussion of Google. I think you meant SOPA. > It's very unlikely that any widespread, powerful websites (like Google or Facebook) would be taken down, because removing them from the ecosystem would prompt an enormous user reaction. Probably not. I haven't read SOPA in detail, so I don't know what the procedure is - who gets to decide whether to shut the site down or not? What if the clerk working that particular desk is an 80 year old luddite and has no idea what a google is, but knows for sure it shouldn't be stealing all those movies or whatever? And what happens to Facebook if I suddenly start uploading video clips from unreleased movies? The obvious answer is that Facebook shuts down my account, but what if some RIAA goon sees it before that happens and pulls the SOPA lever, or some congressman? If they can't use SOPA to shut down an infringing website, how could they have justified using all that cash to lobby for it?
    - billybob 15y ago
      Facebook won't get shut down because it's too big, well-known, and rich. It's all the would-be competitors who will get shut down, because who cares about some no-name "pirate" site? Suddenly, we'll stop seeing new sites that allow user content and the big players will be effectively entrenched by law.
  - Natsu 15y ago
    > I find it exceedingly hard to believe that Google would be brought down as a repercussion of Google. The notion that some sites are too big to be subject to it sounds to me like another good reason to reject this law entirely.
ajankovic 15y ago
I also think they are not going to go dark. Think about how much money those companies are going to loose in a single day by doing that. And we all know corporations of that size are all about money.
sheeps 15y ago
Maybe just a black rectangle in place of the name, with an appropriate link?
- apalmblad 15y ago
  Perhaps someone would be interested in writing some embeddable javascript for the smaller guys that, say, puts a black banner and info links across the top of site? [Me, well, I'm Canadian, and feel like it'd come across as more of a stunt]
adatta02 15y ago
I think the "STOP SOPA" banners on Twitter are pretty effective and if Google added one of those it would be a strong statement - http://www.blackoutsopa.org http://www.blackoutsopa.org
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
oacgnol 15y ago
Tumblr placed a banner at the top and it generated huge amounts of calls to local reps (I think over 12k?). I could see this happening on a much larger scale should Facebook and Google do the same and all without interrupting service.
- iamandrus 15y ago
  If I remember correctly, over 83k calls.
kamjam 15y ago
I don't think it needs to completely dark, they would probably lose too much revenue to justify this... but why don't they black out the site with an overlay and a message "this is what would happen if SOPA becomes law, click here to find out more and contact your local member of congress" and then the user can close the message and continue as normal with the site. (This is screaming out for a jquery plugin!) Obviously you could then just target markets and leave the rest of us free thinking robots to carry on as normal :)
dmooney1 15y ago
If not google.com, then maybe youtube.com, which would have very likely been shut down in its early days had SOPA existed then.

pavel_lishin 15y ago

> Going dark is not something either company would do Until someone decides that they're hosting infringing content, of course.

kevinh 15y ago
I find it exceedingly hard to believe that Google would be brought down as a repercussion of Google. It's very unlikely that any widespread, powerful websites (like Google or Facebook) would be taken down, because removing them from the ecosystem would prompt an enormous user reaction. Say what you will about the intelligence of those involved with SOPA, they know about how much they can rock the boat.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  > as a repercussion of Google. I think you meant SOPA. > It's very unlikely that any widespread, powerful websites (like Google or Facebook) would be taken down, because removing them from the ecosystem would prompt an enormous user reaction. Probably not. I haven't read SOPA in detail, so I don't know what the procedure is - who gets to decide whether to shut the site down or not? What if the clerk working that particular desk is an 80 year old luddite and has no idea what a google is, but knows for sure it shouldn't be stealing all those movies or whatever? And what happens to Facebook if I suddenly start uploading video clips from unreleased movies? The obvious answer is that Facebook shuts down my account, but what if some RIAA goon sees it before that happens and pulls the SOPA lever, or some congressman? If they can't use SOPA to shut down an infringing website, how could they have justified using all that cash to lobby for it?
  - billybob 15y ago
    Facebook won't get shut down because it's too big, well-known, and rich. It's all the would-be competitors who will get shut down, because who cares about some no-name "pirate" site? Suddenly, we'll stop seeing new sites that allow user content and the big players will be effectively entrenched by law.
- Natsu 15y ago
  > I find it exceedingly hard to believe that Google would be brought down as a repercussion of Google. The notion that some sites are too big to be subject to it sounds to me like another good reason to reject this law entirely.

ajankovic 15y ago

I also think they are not going to go dark. Think about how much money those companies are going to loose in a single day by doing that. And we all know corporations of that size are all about money.

sheeps 15y ago

Maybe just a black rectangle in place of the name, with an appropriate link?

apalmblad 15y ago
Perhaps someone would be interested in writing some embeddable javascript for the smaller guys that, say, puts a black banner and info links across the top of site? [Me, well, I'm Canadian, and feel like it'd come across as more of a stunt]

adatta02 15y ago

I think the "STOP SOPA" banners on Twitter are pretty effective and if Google added one of those it would be a strong statement - http://www.blackoutsopa.org http://www.blackoutsopa.org

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

oacgnol 15y ago

Tumblr placed a banner at the top and it generated huge amounts of calls to local reps (I think over 12k?). I could see this happening on a much larger scale should Facebook and Google do the same and all without interrupting service.

iamandrus 15y ago
If I remember correctly, over 83k calls.

kamjam 15y ago

I don't think it needs to completely dark, they would probably lose too much revenue to justify this... but why don't they black out the site with an overlay and a message "this is what would happen if SOPA becomes law, click here to find out more and contact your local member of congress" and then the user can close the message and continue as normal with the site. (This is screaming out for a jquery plugin!) Obviously you could then just target markets and leave the rest of us free thinking robots to carry on as normal :)

dmooney1 15y ago

If not google.com, then maybe youtube.com, which would have very likely been shut down in its early days had SOPA existed then.