Protesters have taken to Facebook and Twitter to make their voices heard. | AP Photos Tech firms face netroots uprising

In the wake of SOPA, everyone hailed the new power of the tech lobby to rile up the online masses and stop Congress in its tracks.

But now, the netroots are turning on tech companies.


Facebook, IBM and other firms — along with lawmakers — have been targeted this week in attacks on Twitter and Facebook, via email and online petitions and threatened by hackers for backing a cybersecurity bill that opponents claim would facilitate spying on Web users. Tweets are one thing, but Anonymous used support of the controversial bill last week as an excuse to disable the websites of trade groups TechAmerica and USTelecom.

“Cyberbullying,” one tech company insider dubbed it.

“Knowing you could be hacked or have your Facebook swamped with complaints makes it harder to express any opinion in the policy process, whether you’re conservative or liberal,” the company insider said. “It’s hard to even tell if the protesting emails and petitions are legitimate or manufactured.”

The virtual masses already have a litany of crossed-out names on their hit list: SOPA, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Now, companies that have weighed in on the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act are being attacked on social media by savvy cyberactivists who have figured out that they can have more sway over Washington with smartphones and catchy hashtag phrases than with high-priced lobbyists. Worse yet, the hacker collective Anonymous last week lent some freelance muscle, unleashing denial-of-service attacks on the websites of Boeing, TechAmerica and USTelecom in response to their CISPA support. More attacks have been threatened.

The House Intelligence Committee already cried “Uncle,” amending parts of the controversial bill at the end of last week in hopes of quelling civil liberties and privacy groups who have threatened to take it down with online protests.

On Wednesday, TechAmerica said it wouldn’t be swayed by the attack. The group wrote to CISPA sponsors Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) this week, saying, “This type of cyberattack illustrates precisely the reason why Congress needs to expedite passage of your legislation in order to enhance information sharing among industry and government to actively defend against cyberattacks in a timely manner.”

While attentive to the criticism, neither Rogers nor Ruppersberger seem concerned that the bill is in any danger. Ruppersberger said that he’s not worried about any wavering among the companies that have supported the bill. Google, he noted, recently gave its support.

But a Google spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company “hasn’t taken a position.”

The bill — already backed by tech stalwarts such as Verizon, Symantec, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM — is expected to move to the House floor next week.

The smart money has been on the activists failing this time around. They lack the support from major tech brand names like Google, Facebook and Yahoo that the anti-SOPA movement had.

The Internet crowd, meanwhile, has found a winning formula to get Congress to respond at the same lightning-fast speed it takes for a single tweet to light a fire across the Web.

“What we saw last week is an acknowledgement by Congress that the game has changed and the playing field has changed,” said Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference that looks at the intersection of politics and technology. “The typical playing field is K Street and the lobbying that goes on in the halls of Congress, but the new playing field is the online town square where the Internet public is now fully engaged using the tools of social media.”

Rasiej took issue with the notion that activists are cyberbullying companies and lawmakers. He noted that any organization that doesn’t do a good job communicating about something’s value leaves itself “vulnerable to a targeted online public relations crisis.”

During a “Week of Action” this week, cyberactivist groups are encouraging Internet users to fight CISPA by targeting lawmakers — and companies that support the bill.

They have taken to Twitter to retweet petitions from Avaaz.org and AccessNow.org that call on Facebook, IBM and other companies to reverse their support for the bill.

“Increasingly, the U.S. government has shown an intense desire to ‘friend’ you, to ‘follow’ you, to get to know your every online move,” says an appeal from SavetheInternet.com, one of several public interest groups participating. “Now they’re channeling that desire towards legislation that clears a path for authorities to work with companies like Facebook, Google and AT&T to snoop on Internet-using Americans.”

The House Intelligence Committee is using a Twitter account to show that both sides can play the game — pumping out a regular stream of carefully spun tweets about the intent of CISPA and the criticisms.

The Twitter account helps set the record straight about the bill so “people can be armed out there with the facts,” said committee spokeswoman Susan Phalen.

“We’re focused on getting the truth and the facts out there about the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill,” Phalen said. “There’s a lot of information on the Internet and a lot of misinformation out there.”

The anti-CISPA campaign shows no sign of stopping, and it’s getting some unsanctioned help from hackers.

Associates of Anonymous — “TheAnonMessage” — warn in a YouTube video that corporations and trade groups that support CISPA — including the Business Software Alliance, Intel, IBM and Microsoft — will be targeted starting May 1 for attacks that “will not be limited to distributed denial of service” attacks. Protests will also be staged offline, at offices of companies that back the bill, according to the video.

Tech companies are a bit nervous about the uprising. Facebook — one of the companies that joined the anti-SOPA movement — posted a defense of its support for the bill last week, just as the heat of the online pressure cooker was turned up.

Demand Progress, one of the main groups involved in the anti-SOPA fight, called on Internet users to focus on pressuring the social network to pull its support for the bill. “Internet users were able to push Go Daddy to withdraw its support of SOPA,” the group’s petition reads. “Now it’s time to make sure Facebook knows we’re furious.”

Part of that effort encourages people to share an Internet meme of a picture of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with the phrase scrawled across it: “Says he will protect the net […] has Facebook sign on in support of #CISPA.”

Facebook’s head of U.S. public policy Joel Kaplan defended the social network’s support of the bill in the blog post published last week, but he struck a more measured tone than the glowing letter of support it sent to the Intelligence Committee earlier this year. Kaplan attempted to dispel some the claims swirling on social media that the bill would encourage Facebook to hand over people’s personal data to the government. He said the measure would make it easier for the social network to protect its systems and, in turn, keep personal information safe from hackers.

Some companies say they fear that having the online activists turn against them may have a chilling effect on their legislative work. “It’s an online version of what happened in the summer of 2009, when town halls across the country … were derailed by protesters on the health care reform debate,” the tech company insider said. “All debate shut down and that was detrimental to the policy debate, ultimately.”

Some members of Congress obsess like teenagers over what’s being said about them in the social media. If it’s all negative — even if there’s not much of it and it’s not from constituents — they’ve shown a propensity to jump ship.

Look what happened to SOPA and PIPA. The bills enjoyed broad bipartisan support and were on cruise control to sail through Congress. But when Wikipedia and Reddit went dark for a day and Google blocked out its logo, co-sponsors of the bills quickly reversed their stance.

But whether it’s the Internet masses forcing the Susan G. Komen Foundation to change its mind about plans to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood or forcing ALEC to back off “stand your ground” laws in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, Internet activists are unlikely to give up.

“There’s a shift in the mood in the country in that people see when they take that sort of action, something happens: Their behavior is validated,” said Deanna Zandt, a media technologist who was involved in the online protests against the Komen Foundation. “People are starting to learn behaviorally that their participation can influence the outcome. They see the potential in something that’s spreading through multiple networks of people.”