Cav's Place

This week is one of action against CISPA, the new “worse than SOPA” bill that’s being pushed through the United States Congress as yet another part of a global effort by governments and large corporations to control the Internet. Perhaps most notably, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has set up a page that lists the organizations that support this protest, offers a brief explanation of what CISPA means for regular Internet users and allows people to quickly send protest messages through Twitter. They also posted a message detailing other actions you can take.
Of course, this is largely aimed at United States citizens, since it’s not an international law, but don’t be fooled into thinking that it won’t affect you if you live elsewhere: The companies behind most of the very popular sites that a large majority of Internet users use are based in the United States and therefore fall under the incidence of such a bill, so it will affect you just as well. And we do need every voice this time around, individual actions becoming even more important because this bill has been tailored in such a way as to gain the support of the large corporations that operate on-line, so we shouldn’t expect any backing from them. As such, you absolutely must add your voice to those that call for this bill, and any others like it anywhere in the world, to be scrapped.

While I’m at it, I should add that there have been some new positive developments on this side of the pond, in the fight against ACTA: After the previous European Parliament rapporteur on ACTA resigned in protest back in January, the new one has now also strongly advised against ratification. This should mean that we are now even closer to the treaty’s rejection, though there are still battles to be fought and the industry’s powerful lobbyists will be formidable adversaries until the end.

Last but not least, you may want to check out The Guardian‘s “Battle for the Internet” series, which is supposed to continue until the end of the week and present the various battlefronts of this modern war. Regardless of how good or bad the articles will actually end up being, such an effort should at the very least serve to once again remind us that the fight is global and we’re all in this together. The focus may be CISPA this week, but Internet users are facing a constant assault all over the world, not only in countries governed by authoritarian regimes but also in many that are traditionally seen as bastions of freedom and democracy.