Firefox Users Engage Congress: SOPA Strike Stats. Yesterday, we blacked out the default start page in Firefox and redirected visitors to the Mozilla sites to a special action page.
We also sent direct messages to members of the Mozilla community through multiple online channels. All these steps were aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of people on the poorly drafted anti-piracy legislation – SOPA and PIPA – pending in Congress. The result: Mozilla reached over 40 million people who, in turn, generated 360,000 emails sent to Senators and Representatives in Congress. Here’s the breakdown of the stats from yesterday’s remarkable campaign: Approximately 30 million people in the US who use the default start page in Firefox received the blacked out page with our call to actionWe sent messages out to almost 9 million people via Facebook, Twitter and our Firefox + You newsletterOur messages were retweeted, shared and liked by over 20,000 people (not counting MC Hammer’s tweet to his 2.4 million followers!)
The debate is far from over. Flamsmark: @binarybits On Weds, @mozi... Mozilla, Firefox join anti-SOPA strike. News January 18, 2012 06:26 AM ET Computerworld - Mozilla, the open-source organization responsible for Firefox, joined other major technology companies today to protest anti-piracy legislation by blackening the browser's home page.
From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Firefox's default home page -- essentially a search field for Google -- will change from its usual white background with the Firefox logo to a blacked-out version displaying a modified graphic emblazoned with "Stop Censorship. " Meanwhile, the English language versions of Mozilla's sites -- mozilla.com and mozilla.org -- will redirect visitors to an "action page" asking for their support in stopping what it called "Internet blacklist legislation. " Mozilla and an estimated 7,000 other sites, including Google, Wikipedia and Reddit, went on a "virtual strike" today to voice their opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), legislation being considered by the U.S. .
See more articles by Gregg Keizer. To Join Tomorrow’s Virtual Protests of PIPA/SOPA. Starting at 8:00 am Eastern tomorrow, Mozilla will join with other sites in a virtual strike to protest the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
These bills protect content at all costs, creating the opportunity for abuse and damaging the Web for all of us. We will be blacking out the default start page in Firefox and redirecting key Mozilla websites to a special action page. Both steps are aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of our users on this important issue. Mozilla’s Chairwoman Mitchell Baker has a blog post that further explains our concerns with the legislation, using a powerful analogy from the physical world to highlight how misdirected PIPA and SOPA are at this point. These steps are complimentary to those participants in tomorrow’s online protest who are focusing on taking websites offline.
This campaign will not effect people’s experience with Firefox, however, we hope it raises awareness and engagement. Mozilla Timeline on SOPA/PIPA November 2011.