As CISPA nears a Senate vote in early June, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has allied with Internet activism group Fight for the Future to form the Internet Defense League. Ohanian hopes that the Internet Defense League can keep the online public abreast of new threats to Internet freedom, as well as organize and promote protests and activism on a Web-wide scale with the help of a 'cat signal,' modeled on Gotham City's iconic beacon 'bat signal' to summon the fictional caped crusader Batman.
January's massive Internet uprising against SOPA and PIPA set a new and successful precedent for viral activism. SOPA and PIPA themselves were unprecedented in their ability to threaten the openness and individual freedom of the Internet. Both bills were defeated earlier this year by a wave online protests, including blackouts of websites from Google and Wikipedia to an army of personal blogs.
They have given way to what Internet Defense League founder Ohanian calls "this endless series of smaller bills that try to unravel Internet rights." The new generation of "net-threatening" bills are individually less audacious and far-reaching than SOPA and PIPA, but their sheer persistence could eventually produce similar results.
When faced with a steady march of new net legislation like ACTA, CISPA, and CSA, Internet users may be suffering from what Digital Trends dubbed "activist fatigue." Online protests against CISPA and CSA have been steady and determined, but these efforts seem to lack both the frenzied intensity and the sheer numbers of January's SOPA and PIPA protests. Instead of a series of uprisings against individual bills, Ohanian is encouraging a long-term, entrenched resistance to legislation which threatens Internet privacy or freedom of expression. That endurance-based approach is the goal of the Internet Defense League.
The IDL's website describes the network as "a permanent force for defending the Internet and making it better." Any Internet user with a website - from personal blogs, Twitter feeds, and YouTube channels to major business sites and even Internet giants like Mozilla - can sign up at InternetDefenseLeague.org.
Registered users receive a code to embed in their websites, which will display alerts and calls to action when new legislation threatens privacy or openness on the Internet. In the event of a legislative threat, the IDL will alert its members and send them an updated code specific to the situation.
Organizers have been vague so far about the exact function of these codes; possibilities range from banner ads urging visitors to contact lawmakers, participate in boycotts, or sign petitions, to full-scale site blackouts like those used in January. That vagueness about the details has drawn some skepticism. "It will have to better define what exactly their code will do," said Digital Trends writer Andrew Couts, "before the vast number of sites that are needed for the plan to work will sign up."
The IDL maintains that its members will have control over what is posted on their websites. "The next time there's an emergency, we'll tell you and send new code. Then it's your decision to pull the trigger," says InternetDefenseLeague.org. The league also plans to offer users "optional code that activates automatically according to criteria you specify." Fight for the Future director Tiffiny Cheng told Forbes, "We'll invent something at the time, and it will be some really unified and shocking action."
In the meantime, awareness and vigilance may be the IDL's primary goals on a day-to-day basis. InternetDefenseLeague.org describes itself as "the Internet's Emergency Broadcast System, or its Bat Signal. Members will be alerted to new legislation by a "cat signal" modeled on Gotham City's iconic beacon. The cat symbol is a nod to the "Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism" developed by Dr. Ethan Zuckerman, director of MIT's Center for Civic Media. Dr. Zuckerman theorized that the same technology that facilitates viral sharing of cute cat images can also facilitate viral activism.
Fittingly, cute cat powerhouse Cheezburger Network has joined the Internet Defense League along with major players like Cloudshare, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Imgur, Mozilla, Public Knowledge, and Reddit. The IDL hopes to gain more members, including numerous personal blogs, Twitter accounts, and websites. That wide-reaching grassroots approach is the root of success for this kind of activism. "With the combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization," says the Internet Defense League's website.
