When the passing of the SOPA bill began to become a real possibility, the public response was overwhelming. Activism took numerous forms both online and interestingly, in the streets. This is quite ironic as vast amounts of activism takes place online over issues in the real world, yet when the internet was threatened by SOPA there was an organised march in New York. This highlights the conflicting debate over the effectiveness of “slactivism”, because although online activism is easy for everyone to access and take part in, more “serious” activists believe that taking to the street is the most effective option.
A group of 9 largest and most powerful companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter wrote a letter to the U.S. government. It stated that although they unanimously supported SOPA and PIPA’s goals, they believed that “unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites” (Richardson, 2011) The letter was posted on the Protect Innovation organisation’s website, which was created solely to stop the SOPA and PIPA bills. This was an interesting turn of events as instead of the companies voicing their opposition in individual official statements, they chose to stand together and use an activist organisation website that anybody can access. It effectively portrayed them to be on the same ‘level’ as the rest of the public, rather than the internet behemoths that they really are.
On a more grassroots level, organisations such as Fight for the Future and The Internet Defence League are much smaller organisations that consist of a much smaller group of dedicated people who are fuelled only by ideals, rather than threat to profits. Interestingly, their tactics include the use of historic government defiance by publically broadcasting and sharing the copyrighted Martin Luther King speech, “I Have a Dream”. To celebrate the anniversary of the internet blackout against SOPA, the organisations used the speech as they believe that activism against racism is still needed, yet it cannot be publically shared due to its EMI ownership. In an interview by CBS, the co-director of Fight for the Future, Holmes Wilson, said that the reason King’s speech had been used was due to his role as an activist against U.S. government control, whilst using it to emphasise the complexity of copyright law (Ngak, 2013). Wilson stated “The interesting thing is that we’re celebrating Internet freedom today, but because of the copyright on MLK’s speech, if SOPA had passed you could’ve gone to jail for posting this video”.
An interesting effect of such huge public opposition was where the U.S. government began to split over the bills. This was effectively the final nail in the coffin for SOPA and PIPA, beginning when the U.S. Vice-president Joe Biden spoke out against SOPA and PIPA. This shows the apparent contradiction of the government in wanting to pass the bills, yet the main politicians and parties are rode the growing wave of opposition to secure supporters and maintain power. An event further emphasizing this phenomenon took place on the 14th January 2012, when the Obama administration stated that the White House that it “will not support any bill that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet” (Phillips, 2012). On 20th January, this government split culminated in the U.S. Congress shelving the bills indefinitely, giving Anti-SOPA activists a strong victory.
References:
Richardson, C. (2011). SOPA Meets Massive Resistance. Available: http://www.webpronews.com/sopa-meets-massive-resistance-2011-11. Last accessed 06/05/2013.
Ngak, N. (2013). One year later, SOPA activists reignite copyright conversation. Available: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57564766/one-year-later-sopa-activists-reignite-copyright-conversation/. Last accessed 06/05/2013.
Phillips, M. (2012). Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy. Available: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy. Last accessed 06/05/2013.
Technology In Activism 