SOPA and PIPA may be indefinitely suspended, however the very day before this was announced, the popular online digital locker Megaupload.com was completely removed from the entire World Wide Web. Not just DNS blocked, which is what SOPA would have done, but entirely removed. It is not a coincidence that just a day before the announcement of SOPA’s suspension that the federal government decided to do this. They planned this event to use Megaupload, a legitimate website with meaningful use to the online community, as an example to the world that with or without SOPA and PIPA that the government plans to censor the Internet and blacklist those who do not comply. I for one believe that the Internet is an international community and one nation does not have the right to affect this community. SOPA and PIPA were stopped due to a massive movement in opposition to the bills. The war for a free Internet has just begun though. The battle against SOPA was “won” but it was a pyrrhic victory. We need to stay united in this fight. The Internet is the greatest asset the world has to spread information. It must remain free, or it will only become a mass of censored garbage pushing large corporations’ agendas. The United States claims that Korea and Iran’s censorship is wrong yet they work to censor the Internet themselves. We must not let this happen.
Jan 28 2012
