When our forefathers signed the Bill of Rights, giving us the Freedom of Speech and of the press, little did they know that over 200 years later, we would have developed a way to exercise this right to the masses. Reaching a potential 2 billion people worldwide with a single article or post, the internet created a true test to our American liberty. But can you put a scale on freedom? In 2012, the US Government believes you can. Two Bills are currently being passed around Congress, the ‘Stop Online Privacy Act’ (SOPA) and the ‘Protect IP Act’ (PIPA), both creating censorship the World Wide Web in an exaggerated attempt to prevent piracy. Today, January 18th, marks a day of protest for website owners and users. By ‘blacking out’ their sites, large companies who function solely or mainly online call people to action against the bills. Though President Obama is not in support of the potential laws, the House and Senate will continue to discuss it on a later date. As of 1:00 pm, I have already felt the negative effects of a life without Wikipedia. And we can all guess that Facebook was probably unable to protest to prevent hospitalized withdrawals, but that would disappear as well. So how will you uphold life as we know it?
