The Scale of the Internet
When the internet was first developed, I doubt anybody would have predicted the social effect it would have. While the transfer of information could occur so spontaneously and rapidly, it also opened up a web of personal communication. People from across the globe could talk with one another, or across the street. Small groups and world communities had this free flowing, unrestricted forum upon which to converse.
What does this matter? Consider how quickly information of SOPA has went around. This bill was introduced late last year, in October. It's now January, about 3 months later, and most of the nation knows. Multiple bits of information regarding SOPA, opinions, announcements, petitions; all of these things to about 240,000,000 american internet users alone. While this is not to say every person on the internet has seen it, if even a tenth have (24kk), that's more people than New York state's population. If half of those people with connection to the internet hear about it, it's more than the population of California, New York, and Florida combined.
One piece of information can be spread hundreds of thousands of times. We share news, images, and videos on a daily basis. We are mediums of information but with 100's, 1000's, even 100,000's of connections that we may convey information to.
Now imagine a small amount of people were allowed to censor, sanction, and limit it. Why? So you'll buy more stuff from them.
Yes I know it's been said a million times, I wanted to say it for the 1,000,001th time.
