Users relieved to hear SOPA is dead
“✹BREAKING✹ – Rep. Lamar Smith has WITHDRAWN SOPA from the House. THIS IS VICTORY! http://goo.gl/0DrFS SOPA is DEAD!” is what hacktivist group Anonymous tweeted Friday afternoon upon hearing that Rep. Smith had withdrawn the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) bill from the House of Representatives.
The announcement that SOPA is dead comes just days after several sites, like Reddit and Wikipedia, went black to protest the bill. It also comes one day after the massive file-sharing site Megaupload was shut down by federal prosecutors.
Although Facebook didn’t go black in protest of SOPA, Facebook officials were happy to hear that SOPA had been declared dead.
We are relieved that Congress has recognized the serious damage the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) could cause to the Internet and are pleased that congressional leaders have decided not to move forward on these bills. We want to thank the millions of Facebook users who shared their views with us, with members of Congress, and with their friends and families on this important issue, and who changed the direction of this harmful legislation. We appreciate that lawmakers have listened to our community’s concerns, and we stand ready to work with them on solutions to piracy and copyright infringement that will not chill free expression or threaten the economic growth and innovation the Internet provides. You can read more about Facebook’s view on this legislation by clicking the “Anti-Piracy Bills” tab on the left side of the Facebook Washington DC page.
Read all of our previous reports on SOPA here.
