With the internet being so engrained in everyday life and communication, it’s no wonder that the largest protest in online history had real-world consequences.
That online protest was an internet blackout on January 18 in which tens of millions of people from all over the world banded together to challenge and successfully shelve the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). These two American bills stood to fundamentally alter how the internet works worldwide in an attempt to control online piracy.
Large corporations such as Google, Wikipedia, reddit, WordPress, and Tumblr all participated in the blackout, showcasing just how powerful internet communities can be.
“I think any of us that spend a lot of time online and in internet communities, we see things happen a lot, we see them go from just an idea or a seed of something and grow into a big phenomenon,” says reddit.com general manager Erik Martin. “I think that just changes the way we look at the world and the way we look at what’s possible.”
Even with the protest’s success, there’s talk over whether or not the blackout will have any lasting effects on the internet.
“I really hope it makes it so online communities, or citizens online, can discuss political issues and things that affect them in spaces that aren’t necessarily political,” says Martin.
And while the protest proved that people have a say in matters that affect their online lives, there’s still much left for those people to do if they want to change the current state of online affairs… and shape where the future is headed.
“It’s the first small step of many to get the online communities legitimized in political discussion,” says Camosun university transfer student Michael Flynn.
But Martin worries that the protests may not have changed the conversation regarding online piracy and the way that large media companies view it.
“What a lot people in the tech community keep trying to say is that the solution to this is innovation and better service,” he says. “These industries need to invest in and take more seriously the idea of selling digital goods.”
Regardless of where people stand on piracy and privacy issues, it seems clear to everyone that media companies will have to adjust to the internet to stay competitive.
“I don’t know anyone who wants to go to the store and actually buy DVDs anymore,” says Richard Edwards, another university transfer student. “What’s the point when you can get it in seconds on your computer?”