UN Internet Conference: The SOPA That Wasn’t

When it comes to Internet outrage, this was no SOPA.

For the past couple of weeks, Google and other Internet companies have protested a United Nations conference over concerns that a new treaty will lead to censorship of the Web. Despite their campaigns, they weren’t able to drum up the kind of widespread indignation that elevated the Stop Online Piracy Act to national prominence earlier this year, according to studies of online discussions commissioned by Bloomberg. For the SOPA blackout on Jan. 18, as any proud netizen will recall, Google self-censored its logo, and Wikipedia obscured its encyclopedic entries. Other companies published blog posts opposing the proposed anti-piracy legislation. The gestures resulted in a firestorm that included 5.1 million Twitter messages during the week of the blackout, according to Topsy, a social-media research firm. Compare that to the 65,300 tweets — containing terms related to the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai — posted during the first week or so of the UN event. Even SOPA, nearly a year after the protests, is getting more attention, with 87,073 tweets during the same time period, according to Topsy.