SOPA: Facebook, Google, Twitter Oppose Bill Amid User Backlash

The online outrage sparked by congresses new effort to "Stop Online Piracy" has reached new heights, this time stretching beyond users to the companies themselves. Facebook, Google, Twitter, AOL are all among SOPA's opponents.

On Wednesday the House of Representatives met to discuss a potential " Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA)--a bill that aims to curb illegal distribution of music, movies and software through federal legislation.

A group of Internet companies including Facebook, Mozilla, EBay, Twitter and Google have written to the Committee Of The Judiciary to voice their concerns about SOPA.

"We support the bills' stated goals-providing initial enforcement tools to combat foreign "rogue" websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting," they wrote. "Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites."

In the letter the companies highlighted their fear that such measures would pose risks to the industries continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as the nation's cyber security. "We cannot support these bills as written and ask that you consider more targeted ways to combat foreign "Rogue" Websites.

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Google's Executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has called the proposal " Draconian."

 "There's a bill that would require ISPs [Internet service providers] to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked," Schmidt said in a statement on Tuesday.

Tumblr has also taken a bold stand against SOPA. When users log onto their Dashboard they will find their content has been replaced by censorship blocks. A link on the top of the page prompts them to " Stop The Law That Will Censor The Internet," allowing users to enter their phone number and street address so Tumblr can give their users directions on how to call their local House Representative. Tumbler tweeted that their users are averaging 3.6 calls per second.

"Clear, simple and well executed. Black lines speak louder than words! Such a clever move by Tumblr - let's hope it gets the desired result," said Facebook user Sheli Rodney in a status update.

"Tumblr did a mind-blowingly good job of getting their point across. Amazing execution, just brilliant, super effective. Lots to learn from, from a product & marketing standpoint. It got me to actually call my representative, voice my opposition to the bill, and feel great about it. I was so impressed I even sent an email and tweet to the Votizen guys to make sure they took notice, it would be cool to have a consumer platform to do what Tumblr did," another Facebook user Francis Pedraza wrote on his wall.

Internet users from all over the nation have flocked to social media sites to also voice their concerns about the new bill, saying it is a form of censorship.

Here are some of the top comments on Twitter:

Link_This Link-This 

@-@ ##SOPA Won't Stop Online Piracy, Would Censor Everyone Else 

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