Kill Bill: SOPA

There is one thing that most teenagers cannot live without— the Internet. Currently, anyone can go onto any website unblocked, but if Congress has its way this could all change. The bill is called the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and it must be stopped.

SOPA will allow the United States government to block its citizens from visiting websites such as Facebook and YouTube. This is censorship of the Internet— a thing that the U.S. State Department is against in numerous other countries. By making Internet censorship the standard in the U.S., it will become the standard of the world.

The method the government will take to block websites in the country is called domain name system blocking. This censorship method is the very same method that is used to oppress people in China, Iran, and Syria. There is one thing that the United States is not— oppressive of its people. The United States was born out of oppression.

The way a website would be blocked is through the posting of any links that infringe any copyrights. If only a few infringing links are posted the entire website will be blocked. Not only will the website be blocked, the site operator would see their U.S. web traffic, ad-revenue, and search traffic will all be blocked. With all of these repercussions, it is expected that fewer startup companies will begin thus causing the economy to become increasingly worse. This bill is a job-killer that must be killed.

The websites at the greatest risk are any website where people are expressing themselves or finding content. These include Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The blocking of these sites cannot happen because these are the places people gather now to exchange information, views, and other important items. Blocking Facebook and others, puts the U.S. one step closer to its demise.

This bill could become law. It has bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, and the support of numerous lobbying groups with a lot of money. The only thing stopping this bill will be the White House. The White House does not support SOPA, and wants to protect the Internet’s architecture.

In this fight there cannot be compromise. The Internet must remain as is because once the Internet is blocked on a national level, the foundation of the country will be undermined. Freedom of speech is what separates the country from diving into complete and utter chaos.