Local Internet Freedom Groups, Opponents Of Internet Censorship Bills Take Their Disapproval to Town Halls, Meetings With Lawmakers

Urge constituents who oppose PROTECT IP Act and Stop Online Piracy Act to visit my.americancensorship.org for more info on how to attend a meeting

Contact: press@fightforthefuture.org

With Congress still threatening to pass Internet censorship legislation when it returns from break later this month, opponents of the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) have set up dozens of in-person meetings with their lawmakers and are organizing groups to attend their lawmakers' town hall meetings.

Opponents are organizing themselves into local Internet Freedom groups and plan to ask Senators questions related to the controversial legislation. The groups are often made of individuals who have never been politically active before. For lawmakers who have no public events, participants are being walked through the process of setting up meetings with their elected officials.

A list of already-scheduled town halls and meetings may be found at https://fightfortheftr.wordpress.com/. And to find out about -- or to set up new meetings -- Internet users may visit http://my.americancensorship.org/.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to recommence deliberations on SOPA on January 23rd. On January 24th, the full Senate is set to begin consideration of PIPA -- likely triggering a filibuster by opponents.

According to Fight for the Future co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng, "Senator Reid is moving quickly to pass PROTECT-IP, although the majority of Americans are opposed to it. Apparently, we only have these last two weeks to make sure lawmakers know that most of the internet and the local people who use it are one hundred percent opposed to these bills -- and that we're going to hold them accountable for the way they vote. It's amazing to see how motivated people are to help stop these bills -- they are taking the legislation into their own hands."

SOPA and PIPA would give the government and corporations broad new powers to block Americans' access to websites that are accused of copyright infringement, and to otherwise undermine those sites' abilities to function.

Fight for the Future and dozens of other organizations and companies have steered more than 4 million contacts to Congress in opposition to PIPA and SOPA.