Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter threaten to go offline over SOPA.

[Alssadar]

As much as I'll detest losing all my internet related sites, I hope they do it.
I really want this to happen, just to make a point against SOPA, 'cuz, goddamn, I'm not giving up my free internets! D:<

This is the reason why I like all these new age companies; they are willing to take loses for a greater humanity.

 

[Lilani]

I certainly hope they do it, if SOPA passes. Hell, I wish they'd pledge to go down for a week. That would even begin to hurt the politicians who use Facebook and Twitter.

 

[GeorgW]

Oh, I dearly hope this is true. It's the only thing that will have a real effect. It'd be a great day, I only use google of that anyway. I hope M$ will throw their weight around as well, to show up those backstabbers at Apple.

 

[Musclepunch]

What if the sites don't recover and suddenly everyone does stuff in real life like they used to

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Oh yes, this is what I was hoping for. If only Google went down for a day it would have an enormous impact. They receive billions of queries from users around the world every minute, with their acquisition of YouTube they have even more eyes on their content. If they went down with Facebook and Twitter and Yahoo SOPA would quickly see a drop in supporters.

 

[godofallu]

Sounds good. I can live without these sites for a day, I doubt fat-cats can.

I doubt those congress members even own internet. Have you heard some of the things they have been saying?

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

This needs to happen... not nearly enough people know about SOPA and what it'll do...

Is Stopping Our Petty Actions really that important American government??? Is it???

Obviously it can't just be a white screen, those webpages would likely have some sort of explanation as to why they are doing what they are doing, otherwise you would just get a bunch of people pissed off at the sites themselves instead of those who actually deserve our anger.

...I'm well aware... the sites will (most likely) display a picture close to what they displayed for Censorship Day a while ago...

Spoiler: The Pic

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Good to know. Hopefully if this thing does go through, the government/big businesses will realize how much money they're loosing - 'cause that's obviously what they care about - and repeal this stupid thing.

 

[Terminate421]

Those websites make an astounding amount of money every damn day. Nothing'll get those congress b******s sweating about the threats of SOPA like seeing how much money will be lost from the american economy, just through those few sites being down for a single day.

I think it will be much more personal than that.

Just wait until they cant access their yahoo email account and cant use facebook and twitter to gather support for their party/themselves. Or until Rick Perry forgets what exactly his plans are again and cant use google to check.

They will have to use....*GASP* Phones!!!

 

[Terminate421]

I think they should do it for a period of time longer than a day. Shut them all down, and don't put them back up for even a second until both SOPA and PIPA are thrown out.

One day is fine. What you are suggesting is suicide.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

This will work. This is gonna get some serious attention to the problem.

Unless the politicians and companies TOTALLY miss the point and go "WTF YOU NO ALLOWED TO SHUT DOWN! WE SUE YOU! NO, WE DON'T CARE THAT THIS IS GONNA HAPPEN WITH THE BILL, YOU GET SUED!!"

I can so see some politicians claiming that this is "a liberal attack on their campaign" or some BS like that....

That said, I still think that this is a GREAT way to spread the word to EVERYONE and show just how badly this bill will cripple the internet. They just need to make sure that EVERYONE knows that their sites will be down for X amount of days for X reason. If it happens with no warning at all, there WILL be lawsuits against them...

EDIT:

Google could kill this bill instantly by threatening to permanently blacklist its supporters...

Oh that would be awesome to see...

Google: We're blacklisting you.
Company/politician: YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!!
Google: ...Uhh...Yes we can. It's at our discretion who we blacklist.

...I would love to see that happen.

 

[Matt Dellar]

I say go for it. SOPA opposition is abundant on the Internet, but ultimately, it's just not that well-known of a bill.

Just removing Google or Facebook individually would stir up quite a bit of people. Me? I'll just kick back and write another chapter in my current novel, finish up Red Dead Redemption, do some programming, draw some pictures, enjoy the lack of snow... Actually, I never realized just how awesome my life would still be without the Internet. I'd probably be fine if SOPA passed, but for the sake of everyone who wouldn't be (and because the bill is just plain stupid), I still oppose it.

Down with SOPA.

 

[brainslurper]

Apple has NEVER said they supported SOPA or PIPA in ANY WAY. At all.

 

[brainslurper]

Why not have all 3 change the default language to chinese for a day? That would mess with peoples heads.

 

[brainslurper]

Or until Rick Perry forgets what exactly his plans are again and cant use google to check.

Then he can go work at valve. They do that a lot, minus the checking part.

 

[Crazy]

Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter, some of the biggest internet based companies out there have pledged to take their websites down for an entire day if the threat of SOPA gets too far to "Give people a taste of whats to come."

I'm shivering in my boots. The only one out of those named that I will miss will be Google, but Bing can replace that.

You guys should start a petition or something.

 

[Pseudoboss]

A few statistics from Wolfram|Alpha on how many views these sites get every day. Google has 712 million daily visitors and 8.2 BILLION page views. Youtube has 480 million visitors and 6.3 billion page views Facebook has 640 million visitors and 8 billion views. Yahoo has 330 million visitors and 2.2 billion views. Twitter has 140 million visitors and 590 million page views.
It's also worth noting that Google also does ads and web hosting of their own. If the company decided to make a banner and post that in the ad slots that they host on so many sites, then word of SOPA would appear in banners on almost every website on the internet.
Yeah, that's a metric fuckton of information passing through these sites every day. that's a lot of statuses left unupdated, e-mails unchecked, money untransferred, memes unwatched. Information travels through these sites in the petabytes every day. I think that when people realize this and switch to Bing, that the servers will get bogged down and Bing would crash. Suddenly, the entire internet would go to pieces for a day. All would be left are sites that you can access directly. I don't think that there would be a person in America that wouldn't know about SOPA by the end of the day.

 

[chadachada123]

Google and Facebook and Twitter. If they go through with it, I have nothing but praise for them all.

Saviors of the internet. Greedy? Well, that definitely plays a part, but Google, at least, seems intent on making money by not screwing over their own users, unlike other companies.

 

[BonsaiK]

The Young Turks talks about the move

I had something really productive and interesting to say, and then I noticed that the OP linked to that disgusting trash can on the face of the Internet that is The Young Turks, so never mind.

 

[Laser Priest]

Really? They'll only be vastly inconveniencing the people who use the bloody internet!

I think it's pretty clear this won't have any major effect on the idiots who want to pass the thing.