[Wikimedia-l] Facebook goes turncoat on the "squash internet freedom" battle.

[Liam Wyatt]

On 17 April 2012 19:52, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 17 April 2012 20:32, Todd Allen <toddmallen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Would it be possible to get enough other sites behind another protest?
> > The last one didn't succeed just because of Wikipedia, it succeeded
> > because there were so many.
>
>
> I think you're dead wrong there. Wikipedia was the only non-geek site
> that gave a damn. We swung the public reaction. Without us it wouldn't
> have happened.
>
>
> - d.
>

I would suggest that if we are going to do something specific in
protest/reaction to CISPA, that it be localised to specifically the USA
this time. I believe that we could get attention with the "they didn't
listen to us last time" argument, and that, as David says, we were integral
to the death of SOPA. However, since this is a USA law, actions should be
limited to the USA otherwise the world will quickly become tired of what
may be perceived as "overreactions" to "foreign" laws.
So (for example purposes) rather than a global blackout on en.wp, a
USA-geolocated banner on all language Wikipedias would be more appropriate.
Note: I'm not necessarily arguing that we should make a protest, or when,
or how, but that *if we do* it should be USA specific.

-Liam