4 ms·

Google might be well served by some sort of partial blackout on its home page, but Facebook would need to get more creative -- and, dare I say it, more social.

Google might be well served by some sort of partial blackout on its home page, but Facebook would need to get more creative -- and, dare I say it, more social. A blackout of any kind on Facebook would create a minor to major annoyance for an audience that we can presume is largely ignorant to apathetic about SOPA. If, instead, Facebook released profile widget of some sort -- say, a standardized black box as one's default profile image, with a solidarity message or link -- they'd probably see better uptake. People would be curious about why their friends were blacking out their profile pictures, and they'd click to find out more. Even if for no other reason than to see what the fuss was about, or to jump on a trendy bandwagon. In this way, Facebook would be piquing interest, rather than creating confusion. Anecdotally, I've seen friends use this tactic to great effect when promoting anything from parties, to launches, to causes. It works because it spreads easily, it's hard not to notice, and it's less easily ignored or tuned out than generic site-wide messaging. And, as the folks at Facebook know all too well, we tend to notice what our friends are doing more readily than we notice what disembodied corporate messages are saying.

avree 15y ago
Agreed. Something similar to http://www.blackoutsopa.org/ http://www.blackoutsopa.org/ would be most effective for spreading awareness on Facebook.
- Stwerner 15y ago
  Good idea. Changing my profile picture to the STOP SOPA one right now.
chc 15y ago
I'm a lot confused. Are you saying that people wouldn't notice if you replaced the whole Facebook site with a protest message, but if you offer a protest widget to "an audience that we can presume is largely ignorant to apathetic about SOPA", it will spread like wildfire? That doesn't make any sense to me.
- DrHankPym 15y ago
  Taking down Facebook would be pointless. How else will people talk about SOPA? I think disabling features with a heavy theme of "SOPA will change the internet" will get a lot of discussion / attention on Facebook.
  - Timshel 15y ago
    I think that a day without google or/and facebook would generate way more discussion afterward than just a simple change of skin.
- Wilduck 15y ago
  They would notice, but they wouldn't be interested. Their response would probably be something along the lines of "I hope this gets taken care of quickly so facebook can go back to normal." The cool thing about the profile picture idea is that it makes it clear that your friends are opting in to this protest. It'll make you curious as to what's going on.
- jonnathanson 15y ago
  Pretty much what Wilduck said. People would absolutely notice a service blackout, or a blanket reskinning of the entire site. But they wouldn't necessarily care. Additionally, they'd first be annoyed about it before stopping to read about why it was happening -- if they even decided to read about it at all. I suspect Facebook would generate as much resentment and/or confusion over the blackout as it would interest in the cause. Conversely, a more "organic" message uptake strategy would be to seed the profile badges or pictures to highly influential users with big, engaged followings. These people would influence others within their networks, who would in turn influence their own friends. The opt-in nature of the protest would not engender any resentment toward Facebook, and it might be received more readily by the users -- each of whom could also act as an evangelist for the cause if they learned about it and engaged with it. Even having influential Facebook employees (Zuckerberg, et al.) replace their profile pics with protest badges would work wonders and get lots of pickup. However you want to slice it, my point is that it's better to use Facebook to spread the word than to spite Facebook to spread the word.
zalew 15y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism
Natsu 15y ago
I hope that Google at least does a doodle educating people about the issue and urging them to contact their representatives. I'm less sure about what Facebook could do, but I hope they at least do something to inform people. Also, it's clear that the threat of crazy legislation isn't going to go away any time soon. I hope that we turn this into an internet holiday of sorts and celebrate "Internet Freedom Day" every year from now on. Hopefully it could turn into the Internet's version of the Fourth of July.
joe_the_user 15y ago
I agree that a Facebook blackout would generate annoyance. And there's a valid point-of-view from which that annoyance makes sense. Facebook altogether is hosting the content of myself and my friends - laid out using Facebook's software but still our stuff. We may all like the idea of going black that day but only if we ask. It's as if a web host decided all of the sites it hosted would go black for a given day as a political protest. It wouldn't wash well. Sure you can say that since people don't pay for Facebook, they can't complain. Whatever the merits of that argument, it certainly isn't how everyone would see things, especially the less Internet-savvy. Given this, it wouldn't seem like a way to convince people.

avree 15y ago

Agreed. Something similar to http://www.blackoutsopa.org/ http://www.blackoutsopa.org/ would be most effective for spreading awareness on Facebook.

Stwerner 15y ago
Good idea. Changing my profile picture to the STOP SOPA one right now.

chc 15y ago

I'm a lot confused. Are you saying that people wouldn't notice if you replaced the whole Facebook site with a protest message, but if you offer a protest widget to "an audience that we can presume is largely ignorant to apathetic about SOPA", it will spread like wildfire? That doesn't make any sense to me.

DrHankPym 15y ago
Taking down Facebook would be pointless. How else will people talk about SOPA? I think disabling features with a heavy theme of "SOPA will change the internet" will get a lot of discussion / attention on Facebook.
- Timshel 15y ago
  I think that a day without google or/and facebook would generate way more discussion afterward than just a simple change of skin.
Wilduck 15y ago
They would notice, but they wouldn't be interested. Their response would probably be something along the lines of "I hope this gets taken care of quickly so facebook can go back to normal." The cool thing about the profile picture idea is that it makes it clear that your friends are opting in to this protest. It'll make you curious as to what's going on.
jonnathanson 15y ago
Pretty much what Wilduck said. People would absolutely notice a service blackout, or a blanket reskinning of the entire site. But they wouldn't necessarily care. Additionally, they'd first be annoyed about it before stopping to read about why it was happening -- if they even decided to read about it at all. I suspect Facebook would generate as much resentment and/or confusion over the blackout as it would interest in the cause. Conversely, a more "organic" message uptake strategy would be to seed the profile badges or pictures to highly influential users with big, engaged followings. These people would influence others within their networks, who would in turn influence their own friends. The opt-in nature of the protest would not engender any resentment toward Facebook, and it might be received more readily by the users -- each of whom could also act as an evangelist for the cause if they learned about it and engaged with it. Even having influential Facebook employees (Zuckerberg, et al.) replace their profile pics with protest badges would work wonders and get lots of pickup. However you want to slice it, my point is that it's better to use Facebook to spread the word than to spite Facebook to spread the word.

zalew 15y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism

Natsu 15y ago

I hope that Google at least does a doodle educating people about the issue and urging them to contact their representatives. I'm less sure about what Facebook could do, but I hope they at least do something to inform people. Also, it's clear that the threat of crazy legislation isn't going to go away any time soon. I hope that we turn this into an internet holiday of sorts and celebrate "Internet Freedom Day" every year from now on. Hopefully it could turn into the Internet's version of the Fourth of July.

joe_the_user 15y ago

I agree that a Facebook blackout would generate annoyance. And there's a valid point-of-view from which that annoyance makes sense. Facebook altogether is hosting the content of myself and my friends - laid out using Facebook's software but still our stuff. We may all like the idea of going black that day but only if we ask. It's as if a web host decided all of the sites it hosted would go black for a given day as a political protest. It wouldn't wash well. Sure you can say that since people don't pay for Facebook, they can't complain. Whatever the merits of that argument, it certainly isn't how everyone would see things, especially the less Internet-savvy. Given this, it wouldn't seem like a way to convince people.