As I hope you’ve noticed at this point, many of your favorite websites are blacked out today: Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Mozilla, and even WordPress among others.
I don’t have much to add to the discussion other than my own concerns with web censorship. What has made the Internet such fertile ground for creativity and expression is the freedom it has afforded its writers. We only have to look to examples like China and Iran (see: Rebecca Mackinnon’s powerful TED talk) to see the potential for infringement upon free speech and liberty.
As a student increasingly interested in technology studies, I am eager to see how both on and offline communities dialogue about the ways to make the Internet both a free and a safe place. What are the best ways to confront issues of piracy? What are the best ways to guarantee that “online citizens” treat the Web lawfully? These are questions that clearly on Congress’s minds and should be on ours, too.
Whattup friend? How have I not found this until just now? In any case, well done with sticking it to the man here…the Congress-man.
Lots of love, Jo