Forum Post: Anonymous Calls For Internet Blackout on Apr 22 to Protest CISPA!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/anonymous-blackout-cispa_n_3116509.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

On Friday, Anonymous called for an Internet blackout in protest of CISPA, which passed the House on Thursday. If signed into law, CISPA would make it legal for websites to give your personal information to the U.S. government without your permission. Naturally, the hacker collective anonymous is not happy, calling for an Internet protest on Monday, April 22.

A subset of Anonymous, posting on a site titled Anon Insiders, posted the following:

We are going dark on MONDAY April 22nd at 6 AM GMT for 24 hours to protest your illogical and terrorizing bill against the Internet itself. Even with the whole Internet crying out to stop this BILL, the US House of Representatives failed to do so blinded by lobbyist’s money and cum in your eyes. So we will take action ourselves and open your eyes. Every popular/mainstream websites will be black until you, Mr. DronObama promise us to use your VETO power to stop this bill at Senate. Take this as a protest or a warning, as you wish. One thing is for certain, neither you or anyone else in this world can control the Internet, so don’t even try.

The plan doesn't involve shutting down or attacking the Internet in any way, it just wants all websites to go dark in protest for 24 hours on Monday. It is not yet known which websites will participate in this blackout. The popular Anonymous Twitter feed YourAnonNews echoed the message on Friday:

The YouTube account "anonops" published a video (above) as well calling for support. Various Anonymous-related accounts are attempting to get the hashtag #CISPABlackout to trend on Twitter, in order to spread awareness of the cause.

This will not be the first Internet blackout in protest of a government bill. On January 18, 2012, more than 7,000 websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Google, protested SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which were accused of similar breaches on online privacy. Two days later, the bill was shelved indefinitely.

President Obama has threatened to veto CISPA for failing to adequately address privacy concerns.