U.S. Continues to threaten Internet freedom

Incredible - 800,000 signatures in a few days, Congress is dithering and a senator will vote to block the reading of our petition for a few hours! Let's get 1 million - sign the petition...

Dear friends,

Right now, the U.S. Congress is debating a law that would give the country the power to censor the Internet around the world - creating a blacklist that may have YouTube, Wikileaks and even Avaaz as targets! Champions of free speech in Congress said they will help our cry, and a Senator will prevent a vote by reading our signatures for hours!

Under this new law, the U.S. can force Internet providers to block any website that is suspected of violating copyright laws and intellectual property, or that fail to adequately police the activities of its users. And, because the majority of Internet hosting services are located in the U.S., this blacklist could stifle free web for all of us.

The vote could happen any day, but we can help prevent it - some members of Congress want to preserve the freedom of speech and told us that an international outcry will help increase their strength inside, and one of them - Senator Wyden - - said he would "prolong the discussion" or prevent a vote by reading our names until time runs out. We urgently raise our voices from all corners of the world and create a global petition as never before. Click below to sign and then forward it to everyone:

For years, the U.S. government condemned countries like China and Iran for the crackdown on Internet use. But the impact of the new censorship laws in North America may be even worse - effectively blocking sites for all Internet users around the planet.

Last year, a similar bill for Internet censorship was stopped before reaching the U.S. Senate, but now this project is back in a different way. Copyright laws and copyright already exist and are enforced by the courts. But this new law goes much further - it gives the government and large corporations enormous powers to force service providers and search engines to block websites based solely on allegations of violations - without a trial or proof that the "crime" happened!

Proponents of free speech in the U.S. have already activated the alarm, and some senators are trying to muster enough support to stop this dangerous bill. We have no time to lose. Let's support them to ensure that lawmakers preserve the right of a free and open Internet as an essential way that people around the world exchange ideas, communicate and work collectively to build the world we want. Subscribe below to prevent censorship in the U.S., and save our Internet:

In recent months, from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement around the world, we have seen firsthand how the Internet can encourage, unite and change the world. Now, if we stay together we can prevent this new attack on Internet freedom. We have already managed it before - in Brazil and Italy,

Avaaz members have achieved great victories in the fight for Internet freedom. Let's make this a global struggle, and mobilize to defeat the most powerful threat of censorship that the Internet has ever seen.

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru