Identi.ca blackout 18 Jan 2012 8AM-8PM EST to protest SOPA/PIPA

Evan Prodromou's picture
Submitted by Evan Prodromou on Sat, 01/14/2012 - 16:08

Identi.ca will join Reddit, the Cheezburger Network, and dozens of other web sites in protest of the Stop Online Privacy Act proposed in the US Congress and its corresponding Senate bill, Protect IP. We will be blacking out the service on Wednesday, January 18th 2012 from 8AM to 8PM EST. I want to explain why.

First, and most importantly, Identi.ca users have asked for it. A poll on Identi.ca had a 90% favorable response rate for a blackout.

Second, because our company is based on an open Web and an open Internet. We want to make the social web look more like the Internet -- distributed, hierarchical, and participative. It's a journey, and we want the Internet to still be there when we reach our goals.

And third, because SOPA/PIPA will directly affect community-generated sites like Identi.ca.

If you're looking for more information on the SOPA/PIPA bills, and how they affect you whether or not you live in the USA, I recommend reviewing americancensorship.org. And I hope that if you run a Web service or publishing platform, you'll join us in this blackout.

We'll have an off-site discussion at identicablackout.status.net during the blackout.

Comments

Ok, we in France support this

Submitted by illustratrice on Thu, 01/19/2012 - 19:32.

Ok, we in France support this blackout!

Stupid self-defeating action

Submitted by MJ Ray on Thu, 01/19/2012 - 10:31.

I knew nothing about this until I returned to my desktop to find a stack of errors from the identi.ca client. I use identi.ca to post to various other websites and I'd just sent a notice about SOPA... which didn't get out. How many other anti-SOPA communications did you disrupt by crashing the site instead of doing a Wikipedia-style website blackout?

90% of what turnout (how does one see a poll result anyway?) and how many of those use another site like twitter as their primary social network anyway?

I hope you

Submitted by rapnet on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 12:21.

I hope you can look into the issue making it impossible to follow remote users on Identi.ca during this black out

Thank you for this! This is

Submitted by børge / forteller on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 09:42.

Thank you for this! This is so important, all forms of action must be tried!

I noticed that Reddit has a very good information page about SOPA, PIPA, and even a bit about ACTA as their black out page, and that it's CC-by licensed. Maybe you should use some/all of it for identi.ca?

PS: I hope you can look into the issue making it impossible to follow remote users on Identi.ca during this black out, so that we don't lose that distributed part of the "more like the internet".

Thank you for your work!

Protest Against Anti Piracy Law

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 02:44.

I Protest over US anti-piracy laws,it thinks will ruin the internet. I back 24-hour blackout of famous websites to protest against proposed US anti-piracy legislation.

Thank You

Submitted by Iftekhar on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 01:46.

Thank you very much for sharing your ideas. My blog site goes dark and We say NO to SOPA and PIPA.

Until what

Submitted by universitas terbaik on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 23:01.

until when we were not able to access identi.ca? but why on the timeline can still have an update while I can not login?

well, i'm from indonesian. i

Submitted by Seribu Pernak Pernik Ponsel Android on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 16:25.

well, i'm from indonesian. i think shutting down my entire site would not affect anything you do in the US.

But, i'll assure you that we'll support anything you do to protest against SOPA

good luck to you all

I will support the protest and blackout

Submitted by The Root on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 14:22.

I hope SOPA, PIPA never passes. I will protest online in support of the freedom of information online and access. SOPA is so evil, so bad, we ned to keep fighting it.

you are right, your company

Submitted by auto diagnostic tool on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 22:18.

you are right, your company is based on an open network and open Internet. So you want to make society more like the Internet - the network of distributed, hierarchical and participation.

You don't have to warn us,

Submitted by andreas on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 11:01.

You don't have to warn us, it's not like a blackout is special at identi.ca or anything...

You should blackout at a

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/15/2012 - 21:17.

You should blackout at a random moment. What's the use if the visitor doesn't feel the pain! Otherwise it's the same as a server maintenance, or is it...

At the risk of being snarky...

Submitted by WWWWolf on Sun, 01/15/2012 - 13:48.

...why did you start the blackout early? And why does the page just say "Service Unavailable" with no mention of SOPA at all? That doesn't drive the political point home in my opinion, a casual visitor might just think this is normal unscheduled downtime and find it an ordinary everyday annoyance. =)

Backup site

Submitted by Stephen Michael Kellat on Sun, 01/15/2012 - 00:21.

How is the backup site going to work? Do I have to have a separate account there? Can we generate a printed version at the end of the blackout period so as to have a more enduring record?

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