A wave of coordinated protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the companion PROTECT Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are 鈥渂lacking out鈥� popular sites across the Internet.
is the highest-profile site to completely darken their site in protest. Google has , and urging Congress to 鈥淓nd Piracy, Not Liberty.鈥�
The SOPA strike is being felt in Austin, too, with local sites darkening in solidarity, and Twitter users voicing discontent with , the Central Texas legislator who introduced SOPA.
In Austin, the has a blacked out home page. While users can access the site, they鈥檙e encouraged to learn about the SOPA fight. is also blacked out, like the rest of Reddit鈥檚 pages. And at least one Austin-based business 鈥� the social media fundraising company 鈥� has darkened their landing page as well. (Update: Commenters point out below that and the blog have darkened their pages, and the features a prominent link encouraging visitors to contact their senators.)
Rep. Smith is a trending Twitter topic in Austin, according to 鈥� though for reasons he might not like. The District 21 representative is taking a tweet-beating for his support of SOPA. Smith had previously for removing Domain Name Service (DNS) blocking from the SOPA legislation, which is one of the opponents鈥� biggest beefs with the proposed legislation, as noted in this letter from . But as it鈥檚 apparent from the breadth of today鈥檚 blackout, opponents want SOPA and PIPA killed in their current form, outright.
