SOPA opponents may go nuclear and other 2012 predictions. The Internet's most popular destinations, including eBay, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, seem to view Hollywood-backed copyright legislation as an existential threat.
It was Google co-founder Sergey Brin who warned that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world. " Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman argue that the bills give the Feds unacceptable "power to censor the Web. " But these companies have yet to roll out the heavy artillery. When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA, you'll know they're finally serious. There are early signs that the nuclear option is being contemplated. Technically speaking, it wouldn't be difficult to pull off. Will Google, Amazon, And Facebook Black Out The Net?
Anti-SOPA pop-up banners online protest a law that many argue will dramatically alter the Internet. In the growing battle for the future of the Web, some of the biggest sites online -- Google, Facebook, and other tech stalwarts -- are considering a coordinated blackout of their sites, some of the web’s most popular destinations. No Google searches. No Facebook updates. No Tweets. No Amazon.com shopping.
The action would be a dramatic response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill backed by the motion picture and recording industries that is intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. A blackout would be drastic. “Mozilla had a blackout day and Wikipedia has talked about something similar,” Erickson told FoxNews.com, calling this kind of operation unprecedented. "A number of companies have had discussions about that," he said. “This type of thing doesn’t happen because companies typically don’t want to put their users in that position,” Erickson explained.
Could Amazon, Twitter, Google go dark to protest anti-piracy law? Related TechFlash coverage: Sen. Cantwell seeks online piracy law seen as less harsh by tech firms Amazon, Google and Facebook are so up-in-arms over federal anti-piracy legislation that the tech companies are considering boycotting the internet. It would be an attention-grabbing ‘nuclear option’ protest that could block traffic to some of the biggest online sites. The tech companies are angry about the Protect IP Act in the Senate and a house version called the Stop Online Piracy Act.
The legislation, aimed at stopping online piracy of music and video, has the backing of the music, film and television industries. It’s unclear exactly how Amazon, Google, Twittter and others might conduct a protest.