American Censorship Day is this Wednesday (Nov 16) — And You Can Join In!

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Action for Freedom — 3 Comments

This Wednesday, November 16, the disastrous “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) heads to the House Judiciary committee. In case you need a refresher, SOPA could allow the U.S. government and private corporations to create a blacklist of censored websites, and cut many more off from their ad networks and payment providers. This bill is bad news, and its supporters are trying to push it through before ordinary citizens realize just how much damage it can cause.

That’s why we’re proud to announce that, along with groups like Public Knowledge, the Free Software Foundation, and Demand Progress, EFF is joining Fight for the Future in an initiative called American Censorship Day. We’re calling out the representatives responsible for this bill and letting them know that this type of Internet censorship is, as TIME Magazine puts it, “a cure worse than the disease”. In fact, we think it’s much worse.

If you run a website, you too can join in the protest. One easy way is to go to the American Censorship Day website, which Fight for the Future runs, and follow the instructions there to grab their code to embed on your page. On Wednesday, that code will give visitors the chance to write or call their representatives and sign up for future updates from Fight for the Future without leaving your site. Starting Saturday, Fight for the Future will also post instructions on how to “black out” your site logo as a second method of protest.

You should review the details on the American Censorship Day page to make sure it works with your site and complies with its privacy policy. If you can’t take these actions, there are other ways to get involved: spread the word to your friends about how catastrophic this bill could be for Internet freedom, encourage other site owners to participate in American Censorship Day, and sign our petition to stop Internet blacklist legislation!