Wikipedia and other websites plan to go dark in protest. | REUTERS SOPA protest nears zero hour

Internet companies and activists are hoping to join the Arab Spring and other online democracy movements by taking an estimated 7,000 websites offline Wednesday to send a message to Washington: Don’t pass a pair of anti-piracy bills.

The websites that have announced plans to go dark include Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit and WordPress, but some of the most visited websites are conspicuous in their absence.


And supporters of the copyright bills dismissed the blackout as a “stunt.”

“It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users and arm them with misinformation,” said Jonathan Lamy, spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America. “It’s time for the stunts to end and those who claim to care about rogue website theft to back up their rhetoric and work with us on meaningful solutions.”

Google announced Tuesday that it will stop short of a blackout and instead the company plans to post a link on its iconic homepage explaining its opposition to the two arcane copyright bills that are suddenly fodder for the evening news: the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act.

"Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. homepage."

A mix of watchdog groups, content creators and grass-roots activists on Tuesday touted the planned mass Internet blackout as the largest online “revolution” in the U.S. to date — saying it is needed to stop legislation that the Internet industry claims will potentially put restrictions on the Web that will halt innovation and undermine free expression.

“Tomorrow will be a big day of action,” said Tiffiniy Cheng, director of fightforthefuture.org, which is organizing the blackout. “The fight will continue until we get the final say from members of Congress that these bills will be dropped, and we’ll start from the beginning on how to balance protection of copyright with expression online.”

Providing an Internet-age twist on backroom lobbying, the campaign is attracting attention on Capitol Hill.

“I've rarely seen an issue that has come up from the grass roots as effectively as this has to slow down, and it appears to be stop, a legislative mistake that was about to be made,” Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said on a radio show on Sirius XM Tuesday called “The Morning Briefing" on P.O.T.U.S.

Senate leaders are pushing forward with a plan to hold a test vote on Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) version of the bill — known as PIPA — on Jan. 24. But divisions in both parties in the Senate suggest the fate of the bill remains in doubt, and sources say they believe Leahy is trying to rework the bill to find a compromise that can win passage.

House leadership aides are reluctant to talk much about SOPA's prospects, pointing to the fact that it's stuck in the Judiciary Committee.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa agreed to postpone a rival hearing that would have escalated the fight in exchange for a promise from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) not to put the bill on the floor until there's more agreement on its provisions, his office said Friday night. Cantor has not contested that account.

"SOPA’s now on the shelf, but we’ll still have to battle with PIPA, which Reid appears to be moving on soon,” an Issa aide told POLITICO.

House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the key sponsor of SOPA, begged to differ with that assessment Tuesday, dismissing plans by Wikipedia and other websites to go dark as a “publicity stunt.” “It is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act,” Smith said in a statement. “The bill will not harm Wikipedia, domestic blogs or social networking sites. This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts.”

Smith added that he expects to resume a markup of the bill in February, following the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks. “I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property,” Smith said.

Liberal nonprofit Moveon.org joined the blackout Monday. Cyber liberties groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology are also participating.

The businesses that are going black are tending to the midsize websites, such as the popular video game Minecraft, photo-sharing site twitpic and the social news website Reddit. Organizers say they’ve confirmed at least 7,000 sites that plan to participate.

“And the number is growing,” Cheng said during a conference call with reporters. “We may see some big sites too. It’s not final.”

For now, though, the movement appears confined to a select group of online heavy hitters and a variety of smaller sites that don’t generate nearly as much Web traffic, according to a list of anticipated participants posted on SOPAStrike.com. Some of the sites listed to go black include personal Facebook pages and blogs, critics pointed out.

During the conference call, opponents of the bills said they don’t plan to stop pressuring lawmakers until they see broad changes to the legislation.

That includes removing domain name blocking provisions, providing clearer definitions and doing away with what opponents call blanket protection for intermediaries to act against suspected infringers.

“The tech community was completely shut out of the talks when these things were drafted,” said Erik Martin, the general manager of Reddit. “We really need to think about how we can go back and start over and have the other side involved.”

The undertaking of a cyber blackout is a new media tactic that Internet companies and activists are using to fight entrenched lobbies, such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Supporters of the online copyright bills say that action is essential to help stem the pirating of the latest movies, music and other content and the sale of knockoff goods — from pharmaceuticals to handbags — online.

Politicos are taking notice of the tactic. Democratic consultant Joe Trippi says the threat of blackouts can be used in the future as a way to leverage an advantage on Internet-based bills the tech community doesn’t like.

“It’s like a strike or a boycott,” he said. “But this can grow exponentially.”

On the lack of participation by heavy hitters such as eBay and Amazon, Trippi added, “It’s logical. A lot of these sites are businesses and there can be problems when you have to tell your shareholders you lost a day of business because you’re going to be in a boycott.”

Sites such as Twitter and Facebook have also been mum. Taking those down would likely muzzle “the power of the networks” to deliver poignant messages, Trippi said. And that would be counterproductive for opponents. “Those networks will be used to flex muscle,” he said.

The Web’s virtual protest — while gaining a lot of media attention — could backfire with some consumers frustrated by the roadblocks to their favorite sites. And it’s unclear if enough consumers will understand the issue enough to take the action the Web companies are hoping for, said Jeff Silva, an analyst with Medley Global Advisors.

“The blackout is a tricky proposition because you don’t know how effective it will be,” Silva said. “At a minimum, you’re going to get people’s attention, but it’s unclear to what extent that translates to activism. Will people flood the phone banks or take down the servers on Capitol Hill? Sometimes these things produce consequences that aren’t always anticipated.”

The RIAA fired back that it’s also not good news for democracy. “How can this be a positive development for a democracy where proposed changes to our federal laws should be based on an honest exchange of ideas?” Lamy said. “The good news is that policymakers who actually read these bills understand that the Internet mythology bears little resemblance to the facts.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 3:13 p.m. on January 17, 2012.