Internet users have a wide variety of opinions on politics, but one thing united them: the proposed SOPA and PIPA laws in the U.S. Congress that would have amounted to censorship of the Internet.
One of the groups opposing the law, Fight for the Future, has erected billboards reading “Don’t mess with the Internet” in the district of one of the members of the House of Representatives, Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who sponsored SOPA. Even better, one of them is right outside his San Antonio office.
The billboard campaign was funded by Internet users via Crowdtilt. The cost of putting up the billboards was $15,000 and they ended up raising $15,111.00. The group has put up two billboards. The other one is located in the ultra-hip city of Austin, which Lamar also represents. It’s not hard to imagine how his support of SOPA might have gone down with the people at SXSW.
Fight for the Future is going to continue to, well, fight for the future. “This is an election year, and we’ve got a lot planned,” their website said. “Right now we’re scrambling to organize Senate constituent meetings to stop CISPA /Lieberman-Collins. The Internet Defense League is gearing up to build the network that stopped SOPA into an ongoing force for good. We’ll be taking aim at the US ‘6-strikes’ regime. And even bigger things are in the works for the November election.”
If you like this, then you’ll want to check out our post on superheroes protesting SOPA. SOPA was also listed as one of the Biggest Tech Flops and Controversies of 2011.
