Internet Censorship

Nothing that I can think of can be more wonderful or more dangerous than the internet.  Something most Americans had never heard of fifteen years ago now affects each of our lives.  Many questions have been raised about safety on the internet, and I think each of us has a different idea of what should be done.  Beginning in late January, the Senate will be voting on a bill known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA).  There is a sister bill in the house known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  Both bills are aimed at shutting down piracy sites on the internet.  While the idea that we should fight internet piracy is well intentioned, the way these bills go about handling the situation presents a true threat to our civil liberties.  These bills would give the U.S. Government the right to target and shut down chosen sites, and potentially fine and punish search engines (like Yahoo! and Google) who return “pirate” sites as search results.  This is nothing more than censorship.  If we as citizens allow our government to begin censoring the internet, it is my belief that the government will continue to seek the right to censor more and more content.  I urge all of you who read this to contact your legislature and tell them that censorship of the internet is not okay in this country.