Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has kept the Internet community on its toes, since the last few weeks. Recently, Google joined the protest too. But this seems to be a never ending protest, as the latest has seen Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the world’s biggest social networking site, Facebook, joining in the protesters’ list. The heavyweights siding with the protesters, is definite to have an impact.
Zuckerberg’s Facebook wall post called SOPA and PIPA “poorly thought out laws” and encouraged readers to get in touch with their local representatives. Zuckerberg wrote, “The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet.” He continued, “The world today needs political leaders who are pro-Internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-Internet”
The Zuckerberg effect could be felt, as the post had been “liked” by almost half a million Facebook users, and garnered close to 100,000 shares(as can be seen in the screenshot below).
But many feel that Zuckerberg could have done a lot more than just a wall post and Chris Taylor of Mashable was one of them. He said that the social networking giant chose not to follow in Wikipedia’s footsteps, which imposed a blackout on the 18th of this month.
Even the search engine giant, Google had gestured supporting the protest, by blacking out its doodle, but from Facebook’s side, there was just a wall post.
Chris however admitted that monetary thoughts might have prevented Facebook from thinking much over it, as he said, “So why hasn’t it? Doubtless the main argument against such a move is financial.” He harped on saying, “Facebook made about $4.25 billion last year; by that reckoning, a single day of outage would cost the site nearly $12 million in revenue. Advertisers would be furious; space they bought in good faith would either be blacked out or appear next to blacked-out text.”
Zuckerberg, however, noted that Facebook takes online piracy and copyright infringement very seriously, as his post even had a link, which was for Anti-Piracy Bills. He emphasized that rogue foreign sites need to be focused on and that actually it is the pirate American intellectual property or sell counterfeit goods pose significant problems for the US economy.
Again, he stressed on the point that SOPA could potentially destroy the Internet, as he said that Congress are “not the right solution to this problem, because of the collateral damage these overreaching bills would cause to the Internet.” Adding to the same, he continued, “The two legislations could create very real problems for Internet companies like ours that are a primary driver of innovation, growth, and job creation in the 21st century economy.”