With American lawmakers in the final stages of passing the Internet-destroying SOPA bill, the call to action has never been louder.
Just two days ago, unable to sit idly by, a clever Redditor named selfprodigy posted a message calling for a boycott of hosting/registration service GoDaddy for supporting SOPA. The post quickly rose to the top spot of the popular media sharing site, meaning the game was on.
Thousands of people promptly picked up the down-with-GoDaddy banner. Within 24 hours, GoDaddy was bombarded with emails and angry forum posts from clients and activists alike. Undeterred, a patronizing GoDaddy reiterated their support for SOPA, essentially begging the Internet community to come and kick their ass – which the Internet soon obliged.
The anti-GoDaddy fervor reached a boiling point in a matter of hours. Many major clients, including information behemoth Wikipedia, pledged to abandon GoDaddy if their stance were not reversed.
Facing such an overwhelming response, GoDaddy finally capitulated to the public, announcing they will be dropping their support for SOPA. A victory for the masses!
Given such a resounding success, activists have set their sights on other pro-SOPA businesses. A crowdsourced list is being hashed out right now, containing names and contact info of hundreds of other companies still supporting the draconian SOPA bill.
What a remarkable phenomenon we are witnessing – real democracy in action. Regular people, united behind the same cause, are mobilizing and taking immediate action to hit big business where it hurts the most – in the pocketbooks.
This Internet-enabled activism is something we will be seeing more of, and is one reason why I am such an optimist. Amazing things are going to happen to our world in a very short period of time as the world’s people come together to snuff out injustices wherever they lie.
Related Posts:
Tags: action, activist, democracy, godaddy, internet, people, power, protest, sopa
