4 ms·

Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

30 points by eplanit 15y ago

hornokplease 15y ago
I resisted submitting this story because of its baiting headline, although I won't be surprised if it gets a lot of attention. Setting aside the fact that the headline is demonstrably false (Wikipedia is certainly a 'big site'), it is curious to me how the language of the headline actually validates the 'internet blackout' even as it appears to disparage it. I don't believe that you typically see reports in major newswires when a petition 'fails' to succeed, as Reuters appears to be defining it here, and yet here we are.
brcrth 15y ago
So Wikipedia and Reddit aren't big?
- charliesome 15y ago
  Reddit is big, but it's not very well known compared to the likes of Wikipedia or Google.
  - Retric 15y ago
    It's probably in the top 100 websites with ~1-2 billion page views a month. Having said that I don't think most journalists look past the top 10 when they are look for "major" players in large part because the leaders are simply so dominate. Facebook clocks in at something like 1 trillion page views a month. (Note: that would take 500 million active users * 30 days * 66 page views a day which seems ridiculously excessive, until you consider how addicted some people are to that site.) (1b) http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/reddit-billion/ http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/reddit-billion/ (2b) http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-05/tech/30592220_1_site-blog-post-unique-visitors http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-05/tech/30592220...
steve-howard 15y ago
> "This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts," said Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of SOPA. "Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy." I'm sure the MPAA's Web site will be online!
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  Or just use Encarta 1996 on CD-ROM, as I'm sure Mr. Smith does. How much could the world have possibly changed?
ndefinite 15y ago
Reuters classifies Wikipedia as "the online dictionary Wikipedia"?
- baddox 15y ago
  Yep. Wiktionary is the online encyclopedia.
grandalf 15y ago
Blacking out your own site to protest a law is as silly as cutting off your ear to woo a lover. I like Google's approach.
- bmelton 15y ago
  If that law threatens your ability to do business, then it could be seen as worthwhile. As Ohanian has said, if SOPA passes, it will likely be the end of Reddit. NOT being willing to lose a day's revenue to something along those lines illustrates, to me, a lack of forethought.
  - grandalf 15y ago
    Google's daily revenue is more money than all congress members combined receive per year in donations.
    - bmelton 15y ago
      All the more reason I'd think they'd want to protect it, going forward.
      - grandalf 15y ago
        My point is that they should spend it in ways that create incentives for politicians, not confusion and annoyance for their customers. If a stop SOPA/PIPA vote was held today, less than 10% of the people raising a stink about it on the internet would show up at the polling place.
freejack 15y ago
This "stunt" has been solely designed to raise awareness and mobilize support. It doesn't take Google or Facebook blacking out their site to accomplish this - simply running a text link or a banner on their sites would go a long way towards helping a huge audience understand the heinous demands of the IP Lobby. By that same stroke, the more dramatic blackouts will also raise a lot of awareness. Despite the differing tactics, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people will be exposed to these important issues tomorrow. I call that a success. Reuters story was just another example of the thinly researched, hastily prepared and barely coherent writing that passes as journalism nowadays.
- toyg 15y ago
  Reuters is part of the establishment, and is acting the part, so no surprise there. The truth is that opposition to this bill is multi-layered: the masses of Wikipedia and Reddit walk the networked streets shouting with their megaphones, while Google and Facebook quietly cut checks to people in suit who know how to talk to congressmen. This is why Big Media actors, like Murdoch and Reuters, are so angry about it all: they thought they only had to deal with Occupy-style "crazies", and instead they find themselves challenged on their own ground as well. They are trying very hard to frame the protest as a "failure" even though it's being wildly successful. I wonder what will happen if/once PIPA is voted down.
  - freejack 15y ago
    Thinking out loud, I wonder how effective the tech counter-lobby can be in a situation like this. Google and Facebook can cut all the checks they want, but if the congress critters have made up their mind about this bill, it would take a huge lobby to make even small differences. I mean it can't hurt - every little bit helps, but it would be super-interesting to know which tactics were most effective compared to everything that's been done to defeat these proposals.
    - moe 15y ago
      To me this is one of the rare cases where technology really is the answer (or rather: where technology dictates the answer). SOPA-proponents can pass any bills they want, nothing can push the cat back into the bag. Filesharing is easy now. People like it. The tech is out there and can't be blocked (see magnet links). Even if the laws pass; for every file-sharing "terrorist" they put in jail there are 10 more. And they're losing mindshare with every action they take. Bills like SOPA are merely delaying the inevitable, they can't turn back time. Of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't front them, as we are.
timjahn 15y ago
How much did the MPAA pay for this article? No, seriously. Re-read the first 3 paragraphs. That is 100% paid for press.
SoftwareMaven 15y ago
I thought Mozilla was blacking out?
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  Yes, but only for 12 hours, starting tomorrow at 8am ET: "Reddit will not be offering its regular service between the hours of 8AM ET and 8PM ET, which is also when Mozilla will be redirecting the Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English webpages to a similar "action page" inviting users of its software to voice their concern." http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/18/2715300/sopa-blackout-wikipedia-reddit-mozilla-google-protest http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/18/2715300/sopa-blackout-wiki...
Vivtek 15y ago
Apparently Wikipedia is not a big site.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
rckrr 15y ago
Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GME5nq_oSR4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GME5nq_oSR4
tikhonj 15y ago
Oh, yeah no big sites. Wikipedia is one of the top ten or so sites and probably bigger than Twitter. And Google, the biggest site period is also pitching in, if not so dramatically. Reddit is smaller but still very big. Really, the headline should be the opposite...
Samuel_Michon 15y ago
Wikipedia now serves a tasteful dark page. The page has a link thats reads "Learn more" [1], but since it links to a page on Wikipedia, it's blacked out as well. I'm not so sure whether that is intentional. Edit: they fixed it, so apparently it wasn't intentional. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn...
silverlight 15y ago
As of right now I'm seeing a Google logo which has been entirely blacked out and links to their take action page. I think the Google logo changing for major events is pretty well-established even outside the "tech elite" community, so while they didn't black out the whole site, I'd definitely say Google is "enlisted".
vm 15y ago
"SOPA protest swells as Google, Scribd, and Wordpress join" http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/google-scribd-and-wordpress-to-join-sopa-protest.ars http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/google-scrib... Same set of facts and two polar opposite opinions. The conglomerate spin machine (which Reuters is part of) is already in motion

30 points by eplanit 15y ago

I resisted submitting this story because of its baiting headline, although I won't be surprised if it gets a lot of attention. Setting aside the fact that the headline is demonstrably false (Wikipedia is certainly a 'big site'), it is curious to me how the language of the headline actually validates the 'internet blackout' even as it appears to disparage it. I don't believe that you typically see reports in major newswires when a petition 'fails' to succeed, as Reuters appears to be defining it here, and yet here we are.

brcrth 15y ago

So Wikipedia and Reddit aren't big?

charliesome 15y ago
Reddit is big, but it's not very well known compared to the likes of Wikipedia or Google.
- Retric 15y ago
  It's probably in the top 100 websites with ~1-2 billion page views a month. Having said that I don't think most journalists look past the top 10 when they are look for "major" players in large part because the leaders are simply so dominate. Facebook clocks in at something like 1 trillion page views a month. (Note: that would take 500 million active users * 30 days * 66 page views a day which seems ridiculously excessive, until you consider how addicted some people are to that site.) (1b) http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/reddit-billion/ http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/reddit-billion/ (2b) http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-05/tech/30592220_1_site-blog-post-unique-visitors http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-05/tech/30592220...

steve-howard 15y ago

> "This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts," said Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of SOPA. "Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy." I'm sure the MPAA's Web site will be online!

Samuel_Michon 15y ago
Or just use Encarta 1996 on CD-ROM, as I'm sure Mr. Smith does. How much could the world have possibly changed?

ndefinite 15y ago

Reuters classifies Wikipedia as "the online dictionary Wikipedia"?

baddox 15y ago
Yep. Wiktionary is the online encyclopedia.

grandalf 15y ago

Blacking out your own site to protest a law is as silly as cutting off your ear to woo a lover. I like Google's approach.

bmelton 15y ago
If that law threatens your ability to do business, then it could be seen as worthwhile. As Ohanian has said, if SOPA passes, it will likely be the end of Reddit. NOT being willing to lose a day's revenue to something along those lines illustrates, to me, a lack of forethought.
- grandalf 15y ago
  Google's daily revenue is more money than all congress members combined receive per year in donations.
  - bmelton 15y ago
    All the more reason I'd think they'd want to protect it, going forward.
    - grandalf 15y ago
      My point is that they should spend it in ways that create incentives for politicians, not confusion and annoyance for their customers. If a stop SOPA/PIPA vote was held today, less than 10% of the people raising a stink about it on the internet would show up at the polling place.

freejack 15y ago

This "stunt" has been solely designed to raise awareness and mobilize support. It doesn't take Google or Facebook blacking out their site to accomplish this - simply running a text link or a banner on their sites would go a long way towards helping a huge audience understand the heinous demands of the IP Lobby. By that same stroke, the more dramatic blackouts will also raise a lot of awareness. Despite the differing tactics, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people will be exposed to these important issues tomorrow. I call that a success. Reuters story was just another example of the thinly researched, hastily prepared and barely coherent writing that passes as journalism nowadays.

toyg 15y ago
Reuters is part of the establishment, and is acting the part, so no surprise there. The truth is that opposition to this bill is multi-layered: the masses of Wikipedia and Reddit walk the networked streets shouting with their megaphones, while Google and Facebook quietly cut checks to people in suit who know how to talk to congressmen. This is why Big Media actors, like Murdoch and Reuters, are so angry about it all: they thought they only had to deal with Occupy-style "crazies", and instead they find themselves challenged on their own ground as well. They are trying very hard to frame the protest as a "failure" even though it's being wildly successful. I wonder what will happen if/once PIPA is voted down.
- freejack 15y ago
  Thinking out loud, I wonder how effective the tech counter-lobby can be in a situation like this. Google and Facebook can cut all the checks they want, but if the congress critters have made up their mind about this bill, it would take a huge lobby to make even small differences. I mean it can't hurt - every little bit helps, but it would be super-interesting to know which tactics were most effective compared to everything that's been done to defeat these proposals.
  - moe 15y ago
    To me this is one of the rare cases where technology really is the answer (or rather: where technology dictates the answer). SOPA-proponents can pass any bills they want, nothing can push the cat back into the bag. Filesharing is easy now. People like it. The tech is out there and can't be blocked (see magnet links). Even if the laws pass; for every file-sharing "terrorist" they put in jail there are 10 more. And they're losing mindshare with every action they take. Bills like SOPA are merely delaying the inevitable, they can't turn back time. Of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't front them, as we are.

timjahn 15y ago

How much did the MPAA pay for this article? No, seriously. Re-read the first 3 paragraphs. That is 100% paid for press.

SoftwareMaven 15y ago

I thought Mozilla was blacking out?

Samuel_Michon 15y ago
Yes, but only for 12 hours, starting tomorrow at 8am ET: "Reddit will not be offering its regular service between the hours of 8AM ET and 8PM ET, which is also when Mozilla will be redirecting the Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English webpages to a similar "action page" inviting users of its software to voice their concern." http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/18/2715300/sopa-blackout-wikipedia-reddit-mozilla-google-protest http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/18/2715300/sopa-blackout-wiki...

Vivtek 15y ago

Apparently Wikipedia is not a big site.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

rckrr 15y ago

Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GME5nq_oSR4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GME5nq_oSR4

tikhonj 15y ago

Oh, yeah no big sites. Wikipedia is one of the top ten or so sites and probably bigger than Twitter. And Google, the biggest site period is also pitching in, if not so dramatically. Reddit is smaller but still very big. Really, the headline should be the opposite...

Samuel_Michon 15y ago

Wikipedia now serves a tasteful dark page. The page has a link thats reads "Learn more" [1], but since it links to a page on Wikipedia, it's blacked out as well. I'm not so sure whether that is intentional. Edit: they fixed it, so apparently it wasn't intentional. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn...

silverlight 15y ago

As of right now I'm seeing a Google logo which has been entirely blacked out and links to their take action page. I think the Google logo changing for major events is pretty well-established even outside the "tech elite" community, so while they didn't black out the whole site, I'd definitely say Google is "enlisted".

vm 15y ago

"SOPA protest swells as Google, Scribd, and Wordpress join" http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/google-scribd-and-wordpress-to-join-sopa-protest.ars http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/google-scrib... Same set of facts and two polar opposite opinions. The conglomerate spin machine (which Reuters is part of) is already in motion