page_title: Protests against SOPA and PIPA
section_title: Physical demonstrations
hierarchical_section_title: Protests against SOPA and PIPA / Protests of January 18, 2012 / Protestors / Physical demonstrations
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking north at NY Tech Meetup rally in front of 780 Third Avenue office building.
context_page_description: On January 18, 2012, a series of coordinated protests occurred against two proposed laws in the United States Congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act. These followed smaller protests in late 2011. Protests were based on concerns that the bills, intended to provide more robust responses to copyright infringement arising outside the United States, contained measures that could possibly infringe online freedom of speech, websites, and Internet communities. Protesters also argued that there were insufficient safeguards in place to protect sites based upon user-generated content.
  The move to a formal protest was initiated when some websites, including Reddit and the English Wikipedia, considered temporarily closing their content and redirecting users to a message opposing the proposed legislation. Others, such as Google, Mozilla, and Flickr, soon featured protests against the acts. Some shut down completely, while others kept some or all of their content accessible. According to protest organizer Fight for the Future, more than 115,000 websites joined the Internet protest.
context_section_description: In addition to the online blackouts, protests in cities such as New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle were held on January 18 to raise awareness of the two bills.
  A series of pickets against the bills were held at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Two picketers were arrested.
caption: Anti-SOPA/PIPA protesters in New York City, in coordination with the Internet blackout
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