Editor’s Note: This column was written during the Internet blackout on Jan. 18. Though SOPA and PIPA have been dropped, this column more specifically deals with the consequences of censorship, which is always a relevant topic.
Editor,
We are now 15 hours into the biggest online protest in history, in which several big-name websites have either brought their websites down or have prominently displayed anti-SOPA and PIPA messages somewhere on their main pages.
You’ll see a few people inquiring why Wikipedia is taking this step — after all, these bills only target pirates, and as long as you’re not doing anything illegal, you should have nothing to fear, right? It’s not like half of the web will just vanish.
And it’s true, Wikipedia would probably also not be affected. But that’s not what we’re protesting. We’re not protesting what would happen tomorrow, or the next day. We’re protesting what these bills give the government the right to do.
Let’s take an example. Let’s say SOPA and PIPA pass. Now, let’s go a few years down the road, say, 12. It’s an election year, and the current president is seeking reelection. He or she has had an average term, nothing super-negative, but nothing really super-positive either.
Now, let’s say a blogger posts about why someone else should be elected over the incumbent. This blog is influential, and it slowly spreads across the country.
Suddenly, the president’s reelection hopes are slipping away. With the power of SOPA and PIPA, the government can decide to shut that blog down. The wording of these bills allows the government to shut down any site it deems necessary without due process. No warnings, no fines, just shut down.
Now, say that blog is on a blogging site like Blogger.com. Since the DNS-masking has been removed, the government can’t just block access to that one blog, so if they want the blog gone, they’d have to shut down the whole site. Now, granted, SOPA and PIPA are only supposed to be used to stop piracy, but any story can be spun. And just like that, without any warning or due process, Blogger.com is gone.
Now, that’s pretty extreme, and pretty unlikely to happen, but if SOPA/PIPA pass, it’s a possibility. Basically, the door would be open for that to happen. That should not be allowed. Now, people keep saying that the government wouldn’t allow that happen, that they wouldn’t exploit it.
But let’s look at it this way. Tech experts, Internet experts and security experts have all appeared before, written to, and called Congress, telling it that these bills will not do what Congress seems to think they will do. Despite the protests Congress still seems intent to push this thing through.
This country was founded on the principle of by the people, for the people, so why aren’t we, the people getting a say? Why is the government so desperate to get its hands on that power?
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
That is what we are protesting. There are countries in this world with Internet regulation similar to this. Maybe you’ve heard of some of them — China, Iran, North Korea — sound familiar? We are protesting our country, the Land of the Free, attempting to take a step in the direction of dictatorship. PIPA and SOPA are the snowballs that can start an avalanche.
It’s not that we seem to think that Wikipedia will vanish if SOPA and PIPA pass, that’s not our point. We are protesting our government taking a step toward totalitarianism, and without so much as a say from the people.
Last time I checked, we live in a democracy, in which the people vote on how our country is run. There has been complete outcry from the American people about these bills, yet Congress refuses to listen.
I read an article today that made me think of something. When technology malfunctions, how often is the solution to simply reboot or reset the device? I think it’s time to reboot Congress.
For too long many of the same lawmakers have sat upon Capitol Hill thinking they “know what’s best for us.”
Jake Viscarra
UNM student
