MDF Update: Don't Mess with the Internet

This week we’ve had one of those rare and historic organizing successes that seem to happen spontaneously, but were the result of years of hard work.

 

As you’ve probably heard by now, two anti-piracy bills — SOPA and PIPA — that were once moving inevitably towards passage in Congress have been halted through amazing organizing work. SOPA and PIPA — backed by the powerful Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America — would have censored the web and killed Internet innovation.

 

That was until SOPA and PIPA woke up the Internet.

 

MDF grantees like Fight For the Future, Public Knowledge, the Center for Media Justice, and Free Press have been organizing and raising public awareness about the dangers of these bills for months — their hard work led to this week's Internet Strike and results that exceeded all expectations. As part of Wednesday's day of action, Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, Flickr and dozens of other major websites went dark for the day. These shutdowns drew attention to the issue that no one could ignore. Every major media outlet covered the issue; Jon Stewart did an amazing piece and even Kim Kardashian pitched in. (We've collected some highlights on the MDF site. Check them out here).

 

The message according to the New York Times was “Don’t mess with the Internet.”

 

Calls, emails, petitions and tweets flooded the capital — with what for Beltway Insiders had shockingly immediate results. Today, Senator Reid decided to postpone the scheduled PIPA vote in the Senate and Lamar Smith tabled SOPA for now in the House.

 

It should go without saying that there is still a lot of work to be done, but this week’s organizing success is worth celebrating. We’re planning a briefing to dig into the lessons learned in the coming weeks.