On January 18, 2012, the web went dark in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two bills introduced into the United States House and Senate in the last quarter of 2011.

Why are we talking about this day ten years later?

The fight for a global internet, access to information, and better sharing that benefits public interests are far from over. Because there are still many threats and SOPA-like provisions in other bills. Because many of the feared outcomes of the bill proposed in 2012 – website shutdowns, censorship to free speech, and domain seizures – are happening today.

Here is a simplified overview of SOPA/PIPA.

SOPA and PIPA aimed to tighten U.S. laws to curb copyright infringement and counterfeiting, particularly focusing on illegal copies of media – films, TV shows, music – hosted on foreign servers. The bills aimed to block sites and order financial services to shut off anyone associated with a site. 

If passed, the U.S. Department of Justice and rights holders could use court orders to take down entire websites based upon a single piece of content, or linked content, on that site. Internet service providers (ISPs) would block users using Domain Name System (DNS) blocking. 

While the bills intended to stop piracy, they were vaguely written with disastrous consequences. For example:

• DNS blocking sets a global precedent and disrupts internet architecture.
• Cybersecurity, and the possibility of Americans opting to use foreign DNS services to reach sites, was concerning.
• Ideologically, the bills undermine the foundational structure of the global internet, cultural communication, free speech, economic innovation, and how people create, find, discuss, and share information lawfully online.

Dubbed the Internet Blacklist Bill, Creative Commons (CC) joined other like-minded organizations in 2012 to raise awareness about the dangers and fight the bills.  As Congress continued to debate before the Jan 24 vote on SOPA, organizer Fight for the Future, watchdog groups, content creators, activists, and millions of American citizens participated in a more aggressive communication strategy to get the attention of Congress – a symbolic internet blackout and messaging protest.

On January 18, 2012:

• 50,000 websites went dark including Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, and Craigslist.
• 162 million people visited Wikipedia.
• 115,000 sites, including Creative Commons, altered web pages with banners and messages opposing SOPA and PIPA with links to Congress.
• Google blacked out its logo and generated over 7 million signatures on its petition.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation reported more than 1 million emails were sent to congress using their site.
• MSNBC reported over 2.4 million Twitter messages about SOPA/PIPA.
• 887,000 people phoned congress.
• Time reported that before the day had ended, “the political dominoes began to fall…then trickle turned into flood.”
• The Washington Post said, “This is what happens when you make the internet mad.”
• The New York Times said this sent “an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.”

As a result, SOPA was tabled, and PIPA was postponed.

January 18 is an historic marker of solidarity, a public interest victory. 

As so, ten years later, Creative Commons again joins many organizations to reflect and continue the work. Please join us, and many others, by attending a series of SOPA Plus 10 events starting January 18, 2022. Our goal is to promote the values of free and open internet, build a better internet, improve access to information, and generate better sharing of news information.

community events
COMMEMORATING #sopa plus 10

This list will be updated as new events are added, and registrations become available. Follow #SOPAPlus10 and #BetterInternet on social media to keep up with the conversation.