We made noise and they listened!
“On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday.”
This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.
The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”
“’This is altogether a new effect,’ Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing ‘an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically’ in the last four decades, he added.” — Fight for the Future
We ALL made a difference, I was saddened by a commenter on Facebook who stated:
“What will it change? None of the people voting are going to personally visit my blog and see whether I do/don’t like the bill. I’m of the mindset that if I don’t know enough about a topic to make an educated decision about it, I just don’t engage it. Which is also why I don’t vote.”
I tried to send her as much info as I could to change her mind about participating in the strike, I’m not sure if she did in the end or not. I’m glad so many people didn’t feel the same way. Thank you to everyone that knew they could make a difference!
