Posted: Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 1:25 am. Filed in Community, Features, Freshly Pressed.
Tags: Censorship, laws, PIPA, Senate, SOPA
Join Our Censorship Protest!
Have you been paying attention to all the hubbub online about the proposed U.S. legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that threatens internet freedom? I wrote about it last week over on WordPress.org, but the gist is this: there’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.
On January 18, 2012, sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is. WordPress.org, Wikipedia, and even WordPress.com VIP I Can Has Cheezburger? will be participating in the blackout to raise awareness and spur you to action.
Here on WordPress.com, we want to participate as well. Freshly Pressed will be blacked out during the strike.
Sorry to take away your daily fix of yummy web content, but this bill threatens to do that on a much wider scale. You don’t want that, do you?
More importantly, we are making it possible for you to participate in the protest. There are two options: a “Stop Censorship” ribbon and a full blackout. The blackout portion will be in effect January 18 from 8am to 8pm EST, while the ribbon will be displayed until January 24. Here’s how to join in:
- Go to Settings → Protest SOPA/PIPA in your dashboard.
- Select if you want to join the blackout or show a ribbon.
- If you choose to join the blackout, you can edit the message that will be shown on your site during the blackout.
- Preview what your protest will look like.
- Click “Save Changes” button to activate your protest.
That’s it! Easy-peasy activism right at your fingertips.
The “Stop Censorship” ribbon will display in the upper corner of your site and links to americancensorship.org. It will display until January 24, 2012 (the Senate vote date).
If you choose to do the blackout in addition to the ribbon, then we will black out your site from 8am to 8pm EST along with the official strike. You can customize the message that will appear on your blacked-out site to tell people why this issue is important to you. Your site will return to just displaying the ribbon after the strike is over.
I hope that a significant number of you on WordPress.com will join in this protest. Publishing freedom is a right we must protect.
And one last pitch: whatever you decide to do about your site, please take a few minutes to head over to americancensorship.org and take action. It only takes a few moments of your time to be an agent of change!
Update, 1/18/2012: For about an hour and a half of the blackout, our blackout option was down because it was not showing the blackout screen and some sites were returning blank error pages. We disabled it until we could make it work properly, which it is now doing, so anyone who chose the blackout option should now see the correct screen.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:35 am
Excellent… thanks WP for setting this up for us! Down with SOPA and PIPA!
January 18th, 2012 at 1:35 am
Love this! Using it already. I am more than happy to support this
January 18th, 2012 at 1:38 am
Thanks for helping us accomplish this on WordPress!
January 18th, 2012 at 1:42 am
Thank you so much for making this possible for those of us on WordPress.com.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:47 am
Reblogged this on MK on the go and commented:
MK on the go will be blacked out tomorrow in protest of SOPA and PIPA. Make sure you sign your name at http://americancensorship.org.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:48 am
Thank you for making it so easy to be a part of something so big. How do we share this with our facebook or twitter followers?
January 18th, 2012 at 2:05 am
If you write a post about the fact that you’re participating, you can use our Publicize feature to share with Twitter and Facebook.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:48 am
What happened to Freedom of Speech?
January 18th, 2012 at 1:51 am
Will happily join as I already had a post written and using the same video! LOL! Great minds….
January 18th, 2012 at 1:52 am
Thank you.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:54 am
I’m participating!
January 18th, 2012 at 1:57 am
Really glad to have this option.. thank you! All my blogs are blacking out.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:05 am
Thank you for posting this! I was trying to figure out how to make my blog “dark” and you made it really easy!!! Thank you so much for taking part and allowing us to do it easily too!!!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:08 am
Thank you! The Black Out notice looks GREAT!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:08 am
I am Supporting and participating,
Rajendra Trivedi, M.D.
Dhavalrajgeera
January 18th, 2012 at 2:09 am
I’m in! Thank you!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:10 am
Thank you, WP. This is what I’ve wanted all along. Now we need to spread the word — FAST!!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:13 am
Is there a plugin for self-hosted WordPress blogs?
January 18th, 2012 at 2:21 am
There are several.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:13 am
Thanks Jane. I’m in.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:14 am
I’m participating … I must participate, but the timing couldn’t be WORSE!! My site and online weekly writing retreats were just mentioned in the latest issue of Oprah Magazine. UGH!!! But not adding my voice to this cry would be wrong…. so count me blacked out. But once … JUST ONCE, I wish I could time things a little better. Grumble grumble.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:16 am
You are awesome for taking action even if it means losing some of that Oprah traffic. Be sure you customize the message for the blackout screen. You could tell the Oprah visitors to come back the next day!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:14 am
This is beautiful and fantastic!
All 14 WordPress.com hosted blogs in the Boles Blogs Network are going dark tomorrow and taking on the ribbon.
Thank you for making this important protest so easy and seamless to join.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:16 am
Yeah, I changed my site. I always thought it was too much control to censor! It’s all about making a change. One person’s voice can make a difference!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:23 am
I was only recently and vaguely aware of this protest, and not at all of WordPress’s participation. I am a blogger here and on the e-mail list for other information, so it seems you didn’t send out any notice of WordPress’s participation, or that bloggers could join in, which I would have done. You should make a better effort to communicate things like this.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:28 am
If we had finalized our decision earlier, we would have! Normally we stay out of politics completely, so as not to alienate any of our users — we may disagree with people/sites on a personal level, but as a business we try to be neutral. We decided this was important enough to break our neutrality, and we worked our butts off today to build the option for all WordPress.com users to participate. Better late than never! (And it’s not really too late, since the protest is tomorrow, not yesterday.)
January 18th, 2012 at 2:32 am
Thanks for making this available to .com users!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:32 am
Great job. Thank you for providing this option.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:32 am
I had already designed an informative blackout blog entry of my own (up for a week now), but I added your ribbon. Congratulations on participating.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:37 am
Thank you very much for providing us this option. It is very important to stop SOPA & PIPA.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:37 am
Count me in! And, thank you, for making the blackout so easy on my blog.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:38 am
Hats off to you for organizing us all!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:43 am
Although we support “Protest SOPA/PIPA”, the WordPress banner covers the link to our “links” page. Too bad one cannot adjust the placement of the banner.
January 18th, 2012 at 2:54 am
That would be a lot of development time, sorry!
January 18th, 2012 at 2:57 am
Many thanks for your great efforts!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:00 am
I’m outside America but I support you
January 18th, 2012 at 3:00 am
I am in. Please check my blog post on SOPA, no words, just a pic…
and share the pic if you are so inclined! Cheers, all!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:00 am
I’m not from the US but surely, this will affect us, or everyone in the world using the internet. Thanks for this!
I’ll spread the news!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:02 am
I also wish we could choose a full blackout on a daily basis, or censorship, rather than a full week, hope that is possible. Thanks for organizing it here!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:12 am
The full blackout is only on January 18th from 8am – 8pm EST. The ribbon in the upper right corner is the part that will be there until the 24th.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:02 am
Definitely joining the protest. PIPA/SOPA is a serious threat to 21st century democracy.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:06 am
This reminds me of the 2007 Writers Strike. Well I’m joining in this protest.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:07 am
get the government involved and things get screwed up!!!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:16 am
I have already changed my header and published a post about the fact. Thanks to WordPress for this update. I thought I wouldn’t be able to show the ribbon because of no access to core files like in WordPress.org.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:26 am
The ribbon looks great on your site!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:16 am
I am very pleased that WordPress.com is taking such strong action on this issue. Thank you for making it possible and easy for us to join in on the protest.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:19 am
Thank you for making it so easy for us to participate in this protest. Much appreciated!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:19 am
Thank you for doing this! Count me in.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:24 am
Thank you for making this so easy to do WP! Mob Wars Blog will be blacked out
January 18th, 2012 at 3:27 am
I’ve done both the ribbon and black out, and put it all over my social networks as a call to action. Glad to have this option, much better than the protest post I was putting together.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:30 am
ribbon on, blackout commenced. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:31 am
Thank you for giving me the option to black out my site tomorrow; which I have done. And yes, it was very easy.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:31 am
thank you wordpress!!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:33 am
Thank you WordPress! I believe Reddit and Wikipedia are doing the same. =}
January 18th, 2012 at 3:33 am
Does every websites including mine will get blackout?
January 18th, 2012 at 3:54 am
Only websites that opt in to the protest in their Settings screen according to the directions in the post will be blacked out on WordPress.com. As for other sites around the web, that is up to each site owner.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:34 am
Joining in! I have tweeted about it too.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:41 am
DONE
January 18th, 2012 at 3:43 am
Reblogged this on poppitsmum and commented:
Please don’t ignore this. It’s potentially the start of them taking away our rights completely.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:43 am
Good luck guys, I’m in Australia and have opted for the ribbon….
January 18th, 2012 at 3:44 am
Thanks for explaining all of this. I’m against movie piracy and infringement of photographic copyright, but some things can go too far.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:47 am
Thanks, WP, for allowing us to take part in the protest!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:49 am
Count me in!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:54 am
I’m in!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:57 am
Thank you for this. I’m proud to stand with my brothers and sisters in this protest.
January 18th, 2012 at 3:58 am
Done!
January 18th, 2012 at 3:59 am
I know that WordPress typically stays out of the political fray, so this is a bold statement — and one appreciated by many!
I’ll be tweeting and sharing this as well…
Mikalee
January 18th, 2012 at 4:02 am
Count me in!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:03 am
I am so glad for this, WordPress team, many thanks and much respect.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:03 am
Thanks, WordPress, for giving us a voice.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:03 am
I’m protesting not only these bills but ALL forms of big government. Like Thomas Jefferson I have pledged to rebel against all forms of tyranny!
RON PAUL REVOLUTION! RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:06 am
Supporting this 100%!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:06 am
I opted in !
January 18th, 2012 at 4:09 am
Gah, why do I not have this option in my settings? I would love to participate but I’ve already refreshed and try from another computer? Am I missing something here :/
January 18th, 2012 at 4:20 am
It should appear in the left hand menu as one of the Settings sub-screens. If you are having trouble finding it, please contact support for assistance.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:10 am
For those of you who missed the report. It was stated yesterday that Obama wasn’t going to let this happen. Here is the link of the article. http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/
So I think that Big Brother lost in this case. Thanks to many who have written to congress regarding this issue of privacy.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:14 am
Not so fast. Yesterday we were all excited that SOPA had been shelved. Late this afternoon it was brought back to life. We can’t count on an executive veto — a 2/3 vote could override that anyway. We need to convince the Senators and Representatives that we are passionately opposed to these bills so that they will not push them through.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:11 am
Thank you. I have my site set up for the blackout + ribbons now.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:12 am
I considered customizing the blackout screen message, but I realized that WordPress had already done a fantastic job. Anything I add would just detract from the message…Thank you WordPress for raising awareness about this important issue! And extra thankyous for making it so easy for us to do so as well!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:16 am
You’re welcome, and glad you like our default message!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:12 am
I’ll be blacking out all three of my WordPress blogs. Thank you so much for giving us this option.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:13 am
I just did! Thanks for making it so easy
January 18th, 2012 at 4:16 am
The ribbon is ON.. d(^^)b
January 18th, 2012 at 4:19 am
Never thought that I would leave you guys a comment (no offense) but thanks, very much.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:21 am
Thank you for officially supporting this, WordPress.com! My blog will be completely blacked out as well.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:23 am
Consider me joined…I’m going to help first thing tomorrow morning.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:25 am
Jane, this is awesome! It’s not showing in my settings. Is there another way to do it or am I being impatient?
January 18th, 2012 at 5:14 am
I just added a graphic to the post to show you where to find the settings. If you still can’t find it, contact support and they can see if something is up.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:30 am
Thanks wordpress for doing this. I was going to try and manually black things out but this is much easier to do. Makes my life much easier.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:34 am
I already had a banner up from when I first heard of this. Great idea! I’m glad WordPress cares about our freedom of expression
January 18th, 2012 at 4:36 am
Thank You Thank You! I am going to be participating!!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:41 am
All my WP blogs will black out tomorrow. This tool is immensely helpful, and much easier than the text-widget method that’s been floating around the forums.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:45 am
I am joining the censorship and I think it is very important that we all get involved!!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:48 am
Thank you WordPress.com for making it easy for us non-coders to join the protest!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:48 am
Free Internet forever!
Internet is ours!
Internet is not the politicians and their business.
Free Internet forever!
Supporting this 100%!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:48 am
I’ve already added the ribbon to my site. Thanks for letting us know about this legislation!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:49 am
Thank you!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:55 am
I was afraid I couldn’t use the blackout because free blogs can’t install widgets freely. However, this made it possible. Thanks!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:58 am
Simple Pleasures Books blog is on blackout until the 24th
January 18th, 2012 at 4:59 am
Thank you Worpdress and thank you to all the courageous bloggers for taking such steps on maintaining Internet Freedom and along with that individual liberty. By the way, Reddit and Wikipedia are joining. But Facebook and Twitter are not protesting. Why am I not surprised?
January 18th, 2012 at 5:05 am
I dont see the blackout option on my wordpress site at paragonsings.com
January 18th, 2012 at 5:09 am
Check the graphic I just added to the post that shows how to get to the protest settings.
January 18th, 2012 at 5:13 am
Thanks Jane and WordPress for making this possible. My Stop SOPA banner is up. Our freedom of speech will not be taken away!!!
R Robertson
January 18th, 2012 at 5:18 am
Good move WordPress. Well done. What will happen to the Statue of Liberty in US?
January 18th, 2012 at 5:20 am
I don’t think the Statue of Liberty has a voting seat in the Senate.
January 18th, 2012 at 5:20 am
Count me in!
January 18th, 2012 at 5:22 am
FUCK YEAH, I reserve the right to express myself FREELY SOMEWHERE IN THIS WORLD OTHER THAN YELLING AGAINST THE WALL, hopefully this protest will work!
January 18th, 2012 at 5:22 am
The ribbon looks nice and makes a statement. I didn’t know this was going on until I saw the WordPress home page blacked out. It took me by surprise and I searched the net for more info on it. Thank you for caring.
January 18th, 2012 at 5:24 am
I’ve got a WP site hosted through GoDaddy, and the option doesn’t show up in my settings menu. Is there a way I can participate as well, without doing a bunch of editting? My only Internet access is through my phone currently, so the easier the better.
Thanks, and even if I don’t end up being able to participate, I appreciate that WP is doing this.
January 18th, 2012 at 6:48 am
The settings we referenced are only for sites here on WordPress.com. If you are hosted on GoDaddy, try one of the open-source SOPA plugins form WordPress.org.