Coming With The Congress’s Return: The Internet Defense League!
In January, activists from all across the political spectrum came together to inform Congress that they did not want the Stop Online Piracy Act to pass. Through actions like a coordinated blackout on January 18 to businesses lobbying heavily in favor of the bill, the defeat of SOPA stands as a great example of how representative democracy can truly work. Despite the defeat of the bill, there have been lasting reverberations from Congresses attempt to legislate the Internet. One of the changes that will become more evident when Congress reconvenes is an active presence of concerned citizens and companies. The presence is the Internet Defense League.
The Internet Defense League is an emerging coalition of individuals and groups who are determined to warn Internet users of threats to Internet freedom. Not affiliated with any political party or any specific portion of the political spectrum, the Internet Defense League’s stated mission will be political, but not partisan. The whole purpose of the tools the Internet Defense League is developing is to educate users and disseminate information rapidly when political actions appear to be encroaching upon Internet freedom.
Early adopters of the Internet Defense League include WordPress, reddit, and Fight For The Future. Ben Huh, who famously moved his thousands of websites from GoDaddy when the ISP and website registrar backed SOPA, has committed the Cheezburger network to the Internet Defense League. This collection of websites and companies was active in defeating the Stop Online Piracy Act and are all very active proponents of free speech.
The Internet Defense League does not cost users money, though they do accept donations. At this point, when you sign up, you will get notifications whenever the Internet Defense League sniffs out a government action that threatens to put limits or restrictions on how users use the Internet. If you own a website and sign up to be a part of the Internet Defense League, your website will be given a code. Notifications that come from the Internet Defense League that you approve would then become active on your website, which should spread the word about the cause that requires action. Because Congress has not reconvened, the Internet Defense League has not yet had the opportunity to use this “early warning system,” so it is unclear at this point how effective the whole thing will be.
Given how effective many of the members of the Internet Defense League were in helping to stop SOPA, it is hard to imagine they would be ineffective together.
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