There’s a super storm heading our way as the petition to stop CISPA is nearing it’s end, with 25,000 signatures left. With the threat of internet censorship looming over, all fandoms are advised to sign the petition so they won’t have to.
Make no mistake about it … if any of the current efforts to shut down freedom on the Internet actually goes into effect, it will NOT succeed.
Why? Because Netizens will not ALLOW it to succeed. We combine the fighting spirit of this woman with modern technology, to create an unstoppable force: The Netizen Revolution.
I hope we are all clear on this. The Internet WILL remain free.
The forces of oppression simply don’t understand cyberspace the way Netizens do. They’re utterly incompetent here, compared to us. Politicians have to hire people to run their websites — due to lack of knowledge, in most cases, not lack of time. (For them to trust those people, many of whom ARE Netizens, not to shut down those websites at critical moments is, well, amusing.)
Try to shut us down … and we’ll shut YOU down. That’s all of us, acting independently. My methods will be legal, but I do not speak for other Netizens. We are not organized — on purpose. We don’t have a central command structure, and no one gives us marching orders.
One way, but not the only way, to shut them down is at the ballot box. There are other legal means as well. My non-anonymity requires that I keep it legal … but many Netizens are anonymous, and many of us do not even let people KNOW that they are Netizens.
Think about it, censors. Think long and hard. In the words of another great woman, Aretha Franklin, “You’d better think about the consequences of your actions.”
![robertlovespi:
[The Netizen Manifesto had to be an Internet meme. A book made of paper would have been inconsistent.]
Welcome to 2012, also known as 14 A.G. (“Age of Google”). After these 14 years, things have changed, forever, fundamentally. Who now holds real power? Not who you might think!
It isn’t the politicians. It isn’t corporations. It isn’t the obsolete “old guard” of the rich and powerful, anymore. The people who really run the show are legion, and cannot be stopped: we are the Citizens of the Internet, or, for short:
NETIZENS
…and, like it or not, we’re taking over. We already have, actually, but we choose our battles. There is no conspiracy here — we function as individuals, working for whatever causes we personally believe in.
The image above, of an activist holding a microphone, evokes the Sixties, when people needed microphones to make their voices heard. These activists forced the USA out of an unjust war in Vietnam — WITHOUT the Internet. What can Netizens do now, with the activist spirit of the Sixties, combined with new technology? WHATEVER WE CHOOSE TO DO. To those clinging to the illusion of control, by the rules of the old system, know this: you keep your positions of “power” AT OUR WHIM. Better play nice!
Some Netizens, especially in the subgroup of us known as “hackers,” do unethical things, such as creating computer viruses, or otherwise wreaking havoc. They should not do this. MOST Netizens operate by personal codes of ethics — but when we see injustice, we fight it, relentlessly, from cyberspace, using Google, Tumblr, Twitter, Wikipedia, our own websites, YouTube, WordPress, and, yes, even Facebook, occasionally. This list is FAR from complete. Even if one of us is somehow silenced, our ideas remain on-line, going viral, unstoppably, and ten new Netizens instantly replace any who fall.
No one is born a Netizen, but anyone with an Internet connection, the dedication, and the WILL TO LEARN can become one. We teach ourselves what we need to know, and, once our transformations are complete, so are our personal liberations from fear, intimidation, and oppression.
Thomas Jefferson, more than anyone else of his era, created a revolution with words and ideas, and he died in 172 B.G. (“Before Google”). Just IMAGINE what he could have accomplished with post-1998 (Google Year Zero) technology, and you’ll start to understand our power, which grows, as our numbers grow, daily.
We will end the War On Women. We will stop the War On Education. We will bring down tyrants worldwide, until the world is free at last.
If you see this, you may be a Netizen already, but, if you are not, you CAN become one. Netizens nearly brought down the government of IRAN in 2009 — and the “Green” Netizens there, with their allies worldwide, will be back, when the time is right, to finish that job.
The power of the Internet has AT LEAST doubled, just in those three years. Each of us becomes stronger every day, as we also increase in number.
We don’t need violence. We don’t need to do anything illegal (and those Netizens who choose to do so should stop). We can fight tyrants almost anywhere with the legal, ethical power of words and ideas, amplified by modern technology.
As for places such as North Korea, where we cannot yet reach effectively: we’re working on that. Netizens will help the world become free. Geography does not limit us here, in cyberspace, and the imaginary lines on maps which politicians draw are problems to solve for us, NOT insurmountable obstacles.
To resist us is futile. Ideas cannot be stopped.
To understand why, do this [squeeze toothpaste from a tube], and then try to get the toothpaste back INTO the tube, without destroying it. It simply cannot be done. To do so would be to defy fundamental laws of physics, and THAT is impossible. Physics, and the power of the truth, are on our side.
YOU are invited to join the Netizen Revolution. Be part of the solution. Solve the problems of the world — by taking direct action. You will never be alone. Join us!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6uitgrjqj1qh6ytbo1_r2_500.gif)
[The Netizen Manifesto had to be an Internet meme. A book made of paper would have been inconsistent.]
Welcome to 2012, also known as 14 A.G. (“Age of Google”). After these 14 years, things have changed, forever, fundamentally. Who now holds real power? Not who you might think!
It isn’t the politicians. It isn’t corporations. It isn’t the obsolete “old guard” of the rich and powerful, anymore. The people who really run the show are legion, and cannot be stopped: we are the Citizens of the Internet, or, for short:
NETIZENS
…and, like it or not, we’re taking over. We already have, actually, but we choose our battles. There is no conspiracy here — we function as individuals, working for whatever causes we personally believe in.
The image above, of an activist holding a microphone, evokes the Sixties, when people needed microphones to make their voices heard. These activists forced the USA out of an unjust war in Vietnam — WITHOUT the Internet. What can Netizens do now, with the activist spirit of the Sixties, combined with new technology? WHATEVER WE CHOOSE TO DO. To those clinging to the illusion of control, by the rules of the old system, know this: you keep your positions of “power” AT OUR WHIM. Better play nice!
Some Netizens, especially in the subgroup of us known as “hackers,” do unethical things, such as creating computer viruses, or otherwise wreaking havoc. They should not do this. MOST Netizens operate by personal codes of ethics — but when we see injustice, we fight it, relentlessly, from cyberspace, using Google, Tumblr, Twitter, Wikipedia, our own websites, YouTube, WordPress, and, yes, even Facebook, occasionally. This list is FAR from complete. Even if one of us is somehow silenced, our ideas remain on-line, going viral, unstoppably, and ten new Netizens instantly replace any who fall.
No one is born a Netizen, but anyone with an Internet connection, the dedication, and the WILL TO LEARN can become one. We teach ourselves what we need to know, and, once our transformations are complete, so are our personal liberations from fear, intimidation, and oppression.
Thomas Jefferson, more than anyone else of his era, created a revolution with words and ideas, and he died in 172 B.G. (“Before Google”). Just IMAGINE what he could have accomplished with post-1998 (Google Year Zero) technology, and you’ll start to understand our power, which grows, as our numbers grow, daily.
We will end the War On Women. We will stop the War On Education. We will bring down tyrants worldwide, until the world is free at last.
If you see this, you may be a Netizen already, but, if you are not, you CAN become one. Netizens nearly brought down the government of IRAN in 2009 — and the “Green” Netizens there, with their allies worldwide, will be back, when the time is right, to finish that job.
The power of the Internet has AT LEAST doubled, just in those three years. Each of us becomes stronger every day, as we also increase in number.
We don’t need violence. We don’t need to do anything illegal (and those Netizens who choose to do so should stop). We can fight tyrants almost anywhere with the legal, ethical power of words and ideas, amplified by modern technology.
As for places such as North Korea, where we cannot yet reach effectively: we’re working on that. Netizens will help the world become free. Geography does not limit us here, in cyberspace, and the imaginary lines on maps which politicians draw are problems to solve for us, NOT insurmountable obstacles.
To resist us is futile. Ideas cannot be stopped.
To understand why, do this [squeeze toothpaste from a tube], and then try to get the toothpaste back INTO the tube, without destroying it. It simply cannot be done. To do so would be to defy fundamental laws of physics, and THAT is impossible. Physics, and the power of the truth, are on our side.
YOU are invited to join the Netizen Revolution. Be part of the solution. Solve the problems of the world — by taking direct action. You will never be alone. Join us!
As of July 12th, Goodbye internet.
“That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.”
ACTA, PIPA, SOPA all seem like a fucking joke compared to this shit.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, today claimed that the plans would only affect terrorists and paedophiles - and called people who value their privacy from government “conspiracy theorists”. But that’s simply not true - the plans would allow the government to spy on every one of us.
Let’s show Theresa May that there are huge numbers of people in this country who value their freedom and privacy as private citizens - and that doesn’t make us “conspiracy theorists”.
This is a place for activists (for any cause) who work on the Internet to meet, and exchange tricks, tips, and tactics, and other ideas. Come join us, please!
Moreover, for anyone who defends the Obama administration here and insists that the U.S. Government simply must have access to all forms of human communication: does that also apply to in-person communication? Should home and apartment builders be required to install monitors in every room they build to ensure that the Government can surveil all human communications in order to prevent threats to national security and public safety? I believe someone once wrote a book about where this mindset inevitably leads. The very idea that no human communication should ever be allowed to take place beyond the reach of the Government is definitive authoritarianism, which is why Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and their American patron-ally — have so vigorously embraced it.
Greenwald points out that the FBI does not need this, because they can go to a judge, get a warrant, and use traditional surveillance when it’s necessary. “But what about encryption?!” Well:
the problem cited by the FBI to justify this new power is a total pretext: “investigators encountered encrypted communications only one time during 2009′s wiretaps” and, even then, “the state investigators told the court that the encryption did not prevent them from getting the plain text of the messages.” As usual, fear-mongering over national security and other threats is the instrument to justify massive new surveillance powers that will extend far beyond their claimed function.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the Obama administration’s record on civil rights and privacy. I expected better from a president who is a Constitutional law scholar.
tl;dr: The very idea that no human communication should ever be allowed to take place beyond the reach of the Government is definitive authoritarianism
welcome-to-the-2am-generation:
welcome-to-the-2am-generation:
I don’t want this to happen, claiming blocking pornography is why we need to do this. I suggest they provide blacklists we can install to stop this with open-source software, they want to provide blocking controlled by the government.
Then, if you agree please share this post and also sign your name
Bringing this to everyone’s attention again…
I disagree with what you’ve said. Protecting children from pornography is just a bullshit excuse for the government to take control of the internet. If you don’t want your kids to see porn, then install parental control. Parents should be responsible for what their kids do not the government.
