SOPA, PIPA: Google 'Censors' Logo To Protest Anti-Piracy Bills

Google censored its own logo on Wednesday to protest controversial anti-piracy bills Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP (PIPA).

Google is known for making whimsical changes to the company logo to, as Google writes, "celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists." But this time, the search giant is using its homepage logo on Google.com to make a political statement. which The New York Times reports that the Google home page receives over 1 billion page views per month.

In what resembles a strip of black tape used in movies and TV shows to silence hostages and prisoners, Google has almost completely obstructed its famous logo -- only bottom curve of the "g" remains barely visible under the redaction graphic.

When a user clicks on the black strip, he or she is taken to a page with more information about SOPA and PIPA. Additionally, the user can sign a petition that opposes the proposed bills and sign up to receive updates.

While Google said on Tuesday that it would participate in the protest against SOPA and PIPA, the search-giant's plans weren't clear.

"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 written statement to HuffPost on Tuesday. "So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page."

Google is just one of many high-profile websites to protest the proposed legislation. Wikipedia and Reddit, the latter of which is credited with proposing the January 18 strike, will be unavailable for all or part of the day.

Take a look at Google's "redacted" logo (below).

Click here to read more about the controversy surrounding SOPA and PIPA, and read on to learn about more websites that are protesting these bills on January 18.

LOOK: Other Cool Google Doodles:

Comments

[lousackman420]

06:28 PM on 01/19/2012

*This message has been censored for your safety.*

[HaveWeAllLostOurMinds]

02:36 PM on 01/19/2012

These bills are nothing less then corporate socialism. It's taking away from one corporation (i.e. Google) and giving it to another (i.e. Sony, and all the other entertainment industries that are bleeding out). This is more about political bribery and the redistribution of wealth than it is about protecting anyones rights. Whomever spends the most money on "campaign contributions" wins. The piracy will continue, it's just that now the persons being affronted will have someone to sue. Google is trading in at around $640 a share for doing everything right. Those doing everything wrong want a piece of that delicious Google pie.

[iRoushan]

05:42 PM on 01/18/2012

The act is something that is meant to trouble the developing countries. Piracy is the real problem that should be faced, but making the Internet lame is not a brilliant idea. If you are brilliant heads, think of a proper solution. Talking about the protest it is to remain here until the Internet is set free http://bit.ly/wWlW0c

[J0E1]

11:28 AM on 01/18/2012

███ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ Oh look how cool and unique I am as the 7th person to do this today...

[DaniFoxy]

09:22 AM on 01/18/2012

████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████

[Desolati0n]

08:56 AM on 01/18/2012

Google is doing it's thing. So is wikipedia. It's amazing to see it all coming together like this.

[TheIpsoFactory]

08:18 AM on 01/18/2012

I don't know how many times I have had comments either censored or indefinitely lingering in moderation limbo right here. When touching on subject matters that new management disapproves.
We're all very naive if we think we have to defend inalienable freedoms by fighting the SOPA initiative - those freedoms are infringed on a daily basis, right here.

Especially this one rarely got passed the mods currently in charge - I wonder how long it'll last this time:

"Dear HuffPo Reader! Everything███ ████████ is ██████ fine ██████████trust ██ ████ . The ██ ████ new██████████ management ██ - go ███ . Back ████████ ██████ ██████████ to ██ ████ ██ sleep ████ ██████████ ██ .███.███"

[BxGurl0813]

09:25 AM on 01/18/2012

An individual site restricting content based on their TOS (or even the whims of mods) is VERY VERY different than Cablevision or FiOS restricting the sites you are permitted to view, or the government actually shutting down a site like YouTube or even Facebook because someone quotes song or movie, or posts a link to a news article.

Do you want Rupert Murdoch controlling what internet sites you are allowed to view?

[Dileas]

11:13 AM on 01/18/2012

Back in the "old days" (last year?) when you sent a letter to the editor in to a newspaper, you'd be one of a very few "lucky ones" who had their views aired if the paper chose to post it. Here you get plenty of comments on news stories both pro and con. I don't think I have ever had one of my comments NOT be posted here, though some have taken a while to get through the moderator for review. For an active thread there may be another 6-8 pages added before my post makes it.

Perhaps you just need a better search method for your comments. :)

[TheIpsoFactory]

09:08 AM on 01/19/2012

I think that's a bit different - when you sent a letter back to your newspaper back in the day, if it was published was an EDITORIAL choice. As it is right now, some random unpaid moderator decides if my comment is kosher, or even clashes with his/her own personal opinion.
They have guidelines for comments here at HuffPo (and most other similar sites) - but even if you do not in any conceivable way break any rules, you still get your comment deleted. For whatever reason.
HuffPo thrived on the notion that it had "a million daily comments" - in the beginning, before the new management.
"Rules" changed overnight, to accomodate new ownership.
You may argue, well that's capitalism for ya - I say random deletion of already published comments (that is no transgression of any guidelines), or keeping such comments in mod limbo, is censorship.
Please note what I'm saying - I'm not saying I have a right to have every comment published here. I'm saying that since they offer the opportunity to freely comment, and you do not break any guidelines, they are not entitled to delete or omit my comments according to personal preferences or whims.

[WarmSnowMan]

06:52 AM on 01/18/2012

Today the SOPA and PIPA protest will reveal to the public which news media organizations distort news when they has a conflict of interest. Are your favorite news sources goodies or a badies? Today we will find out.

Please read the links of the websites protesting SOPA and PIPA today to see what they are actually protesting.

Please then read what the network news media says the protest is about.

If you learn one thing one the internet today it will be the extent to which most major media companies, including network TV news and 24 hour news networks, and the print media organizations associated with them, cover-up, lie and distort when it suits their interests.

And hopefully you will also find which news media sources you can rely on for the truth.

[vidmagic]

01:38 PM on 01/20/2012

Just look at how much air time Ron Paul gets and you can see how the media takes sides.

[DenverPainters]

04:29 AM on 01/18/2012

Wished Sengry or Larry Paige would run for president, only hope for America, and bet America would not be in a deficit. Heck, give Yang who just stepped down from Yahoo a cabinet position.

[Mike Vids]

05:11 AM on 01/18/2012

Our trade deficit with China in 2010 was 250 billion dollars, if each of China's 500 million internet users illegally downloaded as little as 2 songs a day, we would be even... or they would owe us money. Rampant piracy is part of our economic dilemma... they can download our music, movies, tv shows, games, software, books, and magazines... we cannot download their flatscreens, t-shirts and tennis shoes. The day we start to address this will be the day we take back our economic edge.

[Twilight Kingdom]

10:31 AM on 01/18/2012

So you support SOPA then I suppose. Even though it won't solve the problem that you bring up? Even though it puts into place a mechanism to shut down sites the government deems as "unfit"?

[RealityMyFriend]

04:01 AM on 01/18/2012

Comment censored by US Goverment. (made in china)

[Roentgen]

02:37 AM on 01/18/2012

Lame. Wikipedia put their money where their mouth is by shutting down. Google's just doing the equivalent of wearing a colored bracelet.

[Krasi]

06:24 AM on 01/18/2012

What ? Can you really imagine what would happen if google goes down ?
Think before you type, lol

[vidmagic]

01:39 PM on 01/20/2012

My god...no Google...I might have to use Dogpile...what dread.
You want to play on the Superhighway, learn to use a map.

[LaVera Mahshid]

02:24 AM on 01/18/2012

███ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ .███ ███

[Kerry Cook]

01:58 PM on 01/23/2012

Ooooh, lookit the pretty black bars (that you & a million others used here today.) Yawn! Now back to pretty colors & words I can read.

[BlueGirLInARedState]

02:23 AM on 01/18/2012

Google went out for a few minutes earlier, and I was sure they were going down to prove their point. It would have been a good lesson.

[Thanks4Watching]

02:17 AM on 01/18/2012

All lingering ignorance about SOPA vanishes in about five hours.

Make no mistake: The very thing SOPA wants to censor is the only reason we know this bill exists. And that's what they want to do away with; the free flow of information in a medium that can cause an entire resistance movement to mobilize almost instantaneously. And that is why this bill absolutely must not and cannot pass.

The day we lose the internet is the day the last and best line of defense against the end of freedom in our society dies.

[DenverPainters]

04:31 AM on 01/18/2012

Absolutely, well said F4W!

[h101]

04:50 AM on 01/18/2012

what about the ndaa bill? crazy how that one's been totally silent, along with it's 650bn partner to support it.

[susanbsbi]

02:15 AM on 01/18/2012

██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ █

[BlueGirLInARedState]

02:23 AM on 01/18/2012

How did you get censored?

[ATXNight]

10:44 AM on 01/18/2012

Cut and paste:
See now my ██ post has ████ing SOPA ██ ████ !
I can't believe ██████████ █ all your fault.