

Google is Building an Email List Instead of Asking People to Call Congress - Klondike
http://mill-industries.com/post/google-builds-an-email-list-rather-than-fight-pipa

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gkoberger
SOPA and PIPA are just one form of legislation involving the censorship of the
Internet. Even if they are struck down, new legislation backed by any number
of industries will eventually reappear.

Creating a mailing list means that Google forever has an army of people they
can contact to spread the word.

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pak
I do wonder what form Google's "online petition" will take.

Speaking optimistically, they do have both credibility and the power to
publicize, so if they say e.g. "1 million Google users are against SOPA"
perhaps it will be hard for the MSM not to pick it up and repeat the news. And
the number could be very large.

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rexf
In addition to contacting my congress persons, I signed the Google petition.
The Google petition appears to be a blackhole as I can't view what I'm
actually signing before or after signing it.

My preference would have been for Google to have an obvious Call to Action to
e-mail/call your Senator / House members.

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jrockway
The message from individual constituents matters much less than the media
attention this is getting. CNN is what changes politicians' minds, not phone
calls.

Still, this would have been a great opportunity for Google's "click to call"
widget.

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zbowling
If Google put up congressional phone numbers, they could melt the
congressional phone lines.

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runako
That's actually a valid goal of civil activism. Similarly, physical protest
marches in Washington are hell on the commuters there.

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dsl
I was a bit worried that Google might have visitors call congress directly.
That would surely shut down phone service in areas and result in less calls.

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Wab
And so what? The most visited website is putting out a SOPA protest. This
thing has gone from a protest to a greedy contest it seems. I want more, I
want more - not every huge company can do it without losing profit, you know.

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danssig
Yay, let's use more useless emails that won't get read.

