Congressmen and Senators withdraw support for SOPA/PIPA

Yesterday, literally millions of Americans contacted their senators and congressional reps to ask them to withdraw their support for SOPA and PIPA. The result? A massive withdrawal of support from elected lawmakers for the bills. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Boozman (R-AR) all vowed to oppose PIPA (all were co-sponsors of the bill). On the SOPA side, Ben Quayle (R-AZ) and Lee Terry (R-NE) voiced their opposition to the bill, and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) blacked out his own site in protest (!).

Remember, this is what happened on the day. The momentum is breaking, and I predict more defections in the days to come.

Update: More defections abound: Ars Technica lists a total of 18 new senators opposed to PIPA.

SOPA / PIPA Co-Sponsors Drop Like Flies As Millions Protest

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Cory Doctorow

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