Shiny Pebbles…

Starting today Congress is holding hearings on creating an internet firewall like those in China, Syria, Iran and North Korea. The legislation is known as SOPA, the Stop Internet Piracy Act. It has lots of support in Congress because (surprise, surprise!) corporate interests have funneled millions of dollars to key Senators and Congressional Representatives. If the current draft of the law passes, it will block sites on the basis of an accusation, before any review by a judge. Think of it as a no-fly list for the internet where any post or comment by a third-party can get a site blacklisted by the government firewall. The site operator is guilty until proven innocent, and if there isn’t enough money to hire a team of lawyers to fight the accusation, the site simply dies… and with it some of that pesky dissent from corporate-approved opinion.

If that’s not the kind of internet you want, you need to make your voice heard. You need to do that today while you still have some free speech rights online.

Visit Mozilla’s Protect the Internet page, and take a minute to sign up over on the American Censorship Day page.

…and finally, the most effective thing you can do is CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE. Phoning their offices is more effective than sending an email and quicker than sending a letter. Don’t know the number? That’s easy! Visit Contacting Congress!