While you would not witness a blank page like Internet blackout that some sites, including Wikipedia, but the search giant is opposing the bills by adding a protest Wednesday, posting a link on its homepage tomorrow to notify users of Google’s disapproval to the controversial antipiracy bills being debated in Congress, the protest will add to the growing chorus of voices saying the proposed laws are dangerous.
The company in a statement affirmed that it will join Wikipedia, Reddit, and other influential tech companies in orchestrating protests of varying kinds against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are backed by big entertainment and media interests.
“Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail statement. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page.”
When you visit Google you will be greeted with this patch, a giant black censor bar over the Google logo. The only part of the logo barely visible is the bottom of the second “g.”
Clicking on the logo or the link just under the logo takes you to a SOPA / PIPA landing page that displays these words:
Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.
Moreover, as Red Tape’s Bob Sullivan describe, opponents of the legislation–the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect IP Act (PIPA)–are gaining momentum; previous supporters in both houses of Congress appear to be backing off, and President Barack Obama has expressed apprehension.
Vote on both bills had been scheduled in the coming weeks, and it appears those votes will be delayed. However, Google’s opposition expands further than what Twitter, for one, is apparently planning. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo dismissed on Monday a call to go dark by tweeting, “closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.”
Twitter is among a few top tech entities, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, that sent a joint letter to key members of the Senate last November to express their opposition to SOPA and PIPA.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said previously that the bills “go after all the wrong problems,” and jeopardizes free speech and due process. Schmidt described the bills as technologically difficult, including “giving copyright holders the right to delete links from the Internet and criminalizing the indexing of the content by search engines,” the AP reported.
“There are a whole lot of issues involved with breaking the Internet and the way it works,” he said.
Additionally, the page also extends the option to sign a petition against the legislation. Just enter your name, email address and zip code and you can join the fight. After this, Google asks you to share the petition on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
Blacking out their logo rather than completely shutting down their whole service might be seen as a small measure, but with the amount of people viewing Google.com daily, it is bound to make an impact. Nonetheless, the fight still has a long way to go.
The Senate bill is S. 968 and the House bill is H.R. 3261.