*****UPDATE*****
{January 20, 2012}
SOPA has been pulled and the vote on PIPA has been delayed. Protests this week were successful. You can read more at Mashable.
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Twitter. Facebook. Blogs. Google. YouTube. Wikipedia. Reddit. StumbleUpon.
Freedom to do what we want. Where we want. When we want. Say what we want. Share what we want. Find what we want when we need it.
All of this screeches to a halt if SOPA (H.R.3261.IH) and PIPA (S.968) become law.
One infraction on a website would kill the site.
No more My Postpartum Voice.
No more Twitter.
No.MORE.#PPDCHAT.
Chew on that.
We, citizens of the United States of America, have freedom flowing through our veins. It’s the principle on which our country was founded. SOPA and PIPA threaten this freedom to the very core. Social Media would vanish. Collaboration via the Internet. Gone. Access to peer support for Mothers with Postpartum Mood Disorders. Back in the dark ages.
The voices of the Internet are raised together to cause a ruckus loud enough for the White House to hear. They’ve spoken out against the danger of this bill. Congress has allegedly set it aside. Don’t give up yet. Don’t rest until the bills are dead, not just on a side table somewhere awaiting resurrection. Don’t stop until the bills have been shredded into pieces so small there’s no hope for them to ever return.
On January 18th, 2012, My Postpartum Voice is participating in a Blackout to protest SOPA and PIPA. I join several other websites in doing so. You’ll notice none of my pages are currently public. No information about #PPDChat. I won’t be active on Twitter today either. The threat to the Internet and to #PPDChat specifically given the vulnerability of Twitter shutting down due to SOPA & PIPA language is so large I feel a responsibility to raise my voice in protest against these bills.
My Postpartum Voice is a passionately fearless blog speaking up against the stigma and misinformation which exists in regards to the Postpartum experience. If SOPA and PIPA are successfully passed, this website stands to be shut down. Why? Because I may have links to websites which qualify as “piracy” according to SOPA. #PPDChat would suffer a death as well were Twitter to be shut down. I refuse to remain silent and allow my voice be silenced. I refuse to allow YOUR voices to be silenced.
Want to know more about SOPA and PIPA? There are links below to articles, posts, petitions, and ways to boycott these bills which threaten our freedom on the Internet.
Tim O’Reilly at GigaOm: Why I’m Fighting SOPA
Whitehouse.gov Petition to STOP SOPA
Does my Congressional Representative support SOPA?
How to Protest SOPA on January 18th, 2012
Blackout SOPA Badges for Social Media
Keep the Web Open (Alternative Legislation & link to SOPA text)
Amazing Infographic about the MIAA & SOPA
It’s also interesting to note that the RIAA, another organization in favor of SOPA, states on their “About” page their “uncompromising stand against censorship,” something SOPA threatens. Both the MIAA and the RIAA are fearful of digital distribution. Instead of embracing it and seeking to understand it, the rest of us will be forced to pay a very high price for their ignorance.
Visit the links. Educate yourself. Sign the petitions. Call your Representatives. Call your Senators. Encourage everyone you know to do the same. REFUSE to be silent.
Washington is listening at the highest level. Keep screaming. Because if we don’t, our digital voices will be silenced and not of our own volition.
