SOPA Postponed: Reddit, Progressive Change Campaign Committee Declare Victory

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Shortly after the marathon second hearing on the “Stop Online Piracy Act” was adjourned Friday around 1:30 pm ET, opponents of the bill began claiming (temporary) victory.

Popular social news website Reddit and the Progressive Campaign Change Committee had launched an online petition against the bill earlier in the week, gathering 97,000 signatures, according to the groups. The groups sent out an email to reporters and posted a message on their petition website taking credit for the adjournment of the hearing:

VICTORY! Because of immense public pressure, the House Judiciary Committee cancelled their vote on the bill that would kill Internet innovation and free speech — and adjourned for the rest of the year!

Our momentum succeeded in stopping this bill — for now. We have to assemble our Internet army for next year, when this bill will come up again.

Just before the hearing was adjourned on Friday afternoon, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian attempted to host a web “telethon” in which he was to speak out against the bill on live video and encourage viewers to contact their representatives to encourage them to vote against it. The telethon was postponed along with the hearing.

Still, Ohanian tweeted: “#SOPA has been delayed, but we’re gonna keep flooding with calls ftw – and do it again next year.”

Ohanian released the following statement through another anti-SOPA group Demand Progress: “This legislation affects my entire industry and livelihood. We never would’ve been able to start Reddit if SOPA were the law, and I worry about all of the future innovation we’d miss out on if it were to pass. And I have no idea what I’d do with myself.”

Meanwhile, another prominent SOPA critic within Congress, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), took to Reddit’s “ask me anything” pages to discuss the overall support for SOPA within Congress at this time. She conceded that: “If I had to bet right now (no, not a $10,000 bet!) I would guess that SOPA proponents currently have the upper hand in Congress. But that is because you have not yet been heard from fully yet. That is very much subject to change.”

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