Making the effort to stop online censorship.

Stop PIPA/SOPA.

I’m not cutting and pasting anything. I’m not changing my avatar. I’m not boycotting or blacking out in protest. I’m taking the time to write this out by hand. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that feels too much like letting them win. If people hear about a big protest and then there’s enough internet up and running that they aren’t really affected by it they might decide it’s not that big a deal after all so long as their online activities remain unchanged.

Do I think there’s a lot of crap out there I don’t want to see and that probably shouldn’t be allowed on the web? Well.. yes, emotionally I do. But I also realize that what I think of in that light might not be what the next person considers harmful or dangerous, and they might not like my favorite online comics, or authors, or my friends’ political opinions, or my political opinions. The point is that we’ve got the ability and the right to express ourselves without fear of governmental recrimination and being dragged out of our homes in the night and disappearing. Other countries’ citizens may not. That’s kind of the whole reason for that bit that got written into law a long time ago.

I get really irritated by political dogma being repeated over and over without any thought behind it. I get annoyed by people who spout intolerant and hateful drivel. I get really pissed off when someone else’s ranting religious ideology gets crammed down my throat. But I also realize that all means there’s equal time for opposing viewpoints on the web. I’ve got the ability to post a counterpoint, or simply ignore it, or unfriend someone, or block a site, or report it if it really really upsets me or is illegal.

Yes, there are things I’d really rather not see. No, I don’t like all the things I may run into out there, squicks included, but that doesn’t mean that there should be a blanket ability granted to shut down anything the government or a regulating organization deems undesirable. It should be handled on a case by case basis by the internet providers. Sites get taken down every day, child pornography gets removed and prosecuted, and that anti-government and pro-terrorist manifesto with instructions on how to build your own bomb at home will probably be followed up by someone if it’s brought to the attention of the FBI or the FCC, but the manifesto’s author still has the right to speak their mind even if most of us consider it delusional or dangerous.

So no, thanks, I don’t want SOPA or PIPA to be enacted; the internet can police itself.

Advertisement