San Francisco, CA – On January 18, 2012, Internet Archive joined the thousands of internet websites that went dark in protest of the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation.
12 Hours Dark: Internet Archive vs. Censorship

Hackers & Founders organized a protest in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza. They joined forces with tech meetup organizers around the country to hold rallies in New York, Washington DC, Seattle and Silicon Valley to put a public face to the online protests and blackouts.

Speaking at the San Francisco event were many local luminaries including Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, Ron Conway, Jonathan Nelson, MC Hammer, Caterina Fake and others.

Brewster Kahle speaks at the PIPA / SOPA Protest in San Francisco

A digital collection on the January 2012 web blackout in protest of the SOPA and PIPA legislation being considered by the US Congress. Internet Archive’s Archive-It created a collection of websites related to this protest including those participating in the blackout as well as commentary and news surrounding the event. Thanks to Library of Congress and other colleagues for their url contributions.