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Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

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Re: Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

#2
It would be truly amazing to see this. Reddit going dark is fantastic, but to an extent it's "preaching to the choir"- Reddit is already the centre of SOPA activism.

Google, Facebook or Twitter going dark would be a huge statement. Is there a movement for other sites to go dark on Jan 18th as well? My startup going dark by itself wouldn't have a huge impact, but if it was part of a national day of activism it could be great.

Re: Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

#5
I don't think Google & Facebook need to go dark to achieve this. Going dark is not something either company would do - the cost is enormous and it would draw real ire from politicians. But Google simply changing it's logo for a day would be enough to magnify the publicity around this issue. That doesn't impact their users or their bottom line, but it gets the job done.

Re: Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

#6

I don't think Google & Facebook need to go dark to achieve this. Going dark is not something either company would do - the cost is enormous and it would draw real ire from politicians. But Google simply changing it's logo for a day would be enough to magnify the publicity around this issue. That doesn't impact their users or their bottom line, but it gets the job done.

Maybe just a black rectangle in place of the name, with an appropriate link?

Re: Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

#7
post #3

While this would make a statement, somewhere I saw a good point--someone will be googling to see if the snake that bit them was poisonous. Google is now critical infrastructure, like power. If it goes out, people will quite possibly die.

A full blackout of every opposing site wouldn't be necessary to make a very strong statement. Google, for instance, could do a full black out of YouTube but put a full frame, 'click here to continue to your results' ad on their search pages.

Re: Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

#9

I don't think Google & Facebook need to go dark to achieve this. Going dark is not something either company would do - the cost is enormous and it would draw real ire from politicians. But Google simply changing it's logo for a day would be enough to magnify the publicity around this issue. That doesn't impact their users or their bottom line, but it gets the job done.

I think the "STOP SOPA" banners on Twitter are pretty effective and if Google added one of those it would be a strong statement - http://www.blackoutsopa.org

Re: Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA

#10
post #3

While this would make a statement, somewhere I saw a good point--someone will be googling to see if the snake that bit them was poisonous. Google is now critical infrastructure, like power. If it goes out, people will quite possibly die.

I don't think going dark completely is good, for that very reason. That wouldn't stop Google from making a very prominent display of their argument against SOPA/PIPA -- placing the message on the homepage, featuring it on SERPs, etc.

I think if Google just put the message at somewhere on the homepage, it would have a profound effect, given how bare the Google homepage is. That, of course, wouldn't get the message across to the many people who use built-in search in browsers and other such methods of accessing SERPs.

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