If there's one thing that makes people tweet, it's a cause. And yesterday, the SOPA blackout proved that millions will rally to counter any kind of Internet censorship. Twitter reported that more than 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets flooded onto the microblogging site on Jan. 18, including Mark Zuckerberg's first tweet since 2009.
Wikipedia also found that, "At one point,#wikipediablackout constituted 1% of all tweets, and SOPA accounted for a quarter-million tweets hourly during the blackout."
We used Storify to find some under the #SOPAblackout hashtag. As you can see, there was some creativity about the redactions people felt would come with the SOPA/PIPA muzzle.
Those who commented on the frustrating similarity between #SOPA and #SOAP also decided to have some good, clean fun with it.
And then there was the pro-SOPA/PIPA Recording Industry Association of America's Jonathan Lamy, who couldn't help but throw a sucker punch at Wikipedia — a major opponent of SOPA/PIPA that blacked out the content on its English site and still saw 162 million views on its home page — referring to the online encyclopedia as the go-to place for students who need help on their papers. (We notice that the tweet has since been excised, so thanks Gizmodo for capturing it while it was alive!)
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and Comcast/NBC Universal. Microsoft publicly opposes SOPA in its current form, while Comcast/NBC Universal is listed as a supporter of SOPA on the House Judiciary Committee website.)
More stories:
- Wikipedia traffic surged during SOPA blackout
- SOPA inspires Mark Zuckerberg’s first tweet since 2009
- What an Internet protest looks like
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