free internet

The Freedom of Internet Act (formerly Free Internet Act) is an act aimed to legislate the Internet and its uses worldwide, as an alternative to SOPA and PIPA. The idea was originated in a Reddit post and the act is being developed in a subsection of Reddit specifically created for this purpose. As one of the first instances of crowd sourcing legislation, it has raised questions concerning public participation in government in the 21st century. The act passed January 12, 2012.Early articles by blog site Techdirt and technology news site Techspot show that there is an interest to see how this proposal will pan out in the wake of the successful Reddit campaign to halt the passage of SOPA and PIPA. Some technology journalists wrote tongue-in-cheek commentaries on the situation. Covered by RT, Alexis Ohanian, Co-founder of Reddit, explained that

This is definitely a first, but I'll tell you we are in uncharted territory. This is a community that a few years ago decided it was going to be a good idea to have the world's largest secret santa exchange, and did it. And entire websites have been devoted to this, and now twice a year you can exchange secret santa gifts with people all across the world. It just kind of works. And it's this decentralized magic, that has done so much for the SOPA and PIPA fight thus far, yeah I wouldn't put anything past them. Now there is still a long way to go from great discussions online to actual legislation, but what's really excited is that what's come out of the backlash is that there are legislators, there are senators and representatives who are actually listening.

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