Black World Wide Web protest
Encyclopedia
On February 1, 1996, U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act
Telecommunications Act
There are several pieces of legislation named the Telecommunications Act* Telecommunications Act 1997, Australia* Telecommunications Act * Telecommunications Act 1984, United Kingdom* Telecommunications Act of 1996, United States...

, a telecommunications reform bill containing the Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...

. Timed to coincide with President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

's signing of the bill on February 8, 1996, a large number of web sites had their background color turned to black for 48 hours to protest the Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...

's curtailment of free speech. The Turn the Web Black protest, also called Black Thursday, was led by the Voters Telecommunications Watch and paralleled the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign
Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign
The Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign is an online advocacy campaign for intellectual freedom on the Internet, orchestrated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation . Web site owners are encouraged to place images of blue ribbons on their sites and link to EFF's campaign...

 run by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...

. Thousands of websites, including a number of major ones, joined in the protest. The campaign was noted by major media such as the CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, TIME magazine and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

.

The Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...

 which gave rise to the protest was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 on June 26, 1997.

External links

  • Initial announcement from Center for Democracy and Technology
    Center for Democracy and Technology
    The Center for Democracy & Technology is a Washington, D.C. based 501 non-profit public-interest group that works to promote an open, innovative and free Internet....

    , retrieved from the Internet Archive
    Internet Archive
    The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...

  • Copy of Yahoo! homepage on xarch
  • Rant on the Occasion of the Signing of the Communications Decency Act by Howard Rheingold
    Howard Rheingold
    -See also:* Collective intelligence* Information society* The WELL* Virtual community-External links:***** at TED conference** a 48MB Quicktime movie, hosted by the Internet Archive...

  • Too Little, Too Late by Joel Snyder
  • How Many Sites Went Dark?: An Educated Guess by Michael A. Norwick, retrieved from the Internet Archive
    Internet Archive
    The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK