Since last Thursday, several large corporations and associations have publicly expressed their support for the Protect IP Bill while local, independent voices are being ignored for their concerns over the bill’s harmful effects on net neutrality. Industry groups such as Independent Film and Television Alliance, Motion Pictures Association of America, and National Association of Theatre Owners praise the Protect IP Bill continuously, and are being covered by various articles. However, Sherwin Siy, the deputy legal director of Public Knowledge, barely makes it into two articles in the past few days for his opposition.

Brian Raymond, Director of Technology Policy of the National Association of Manufacturers, states that the Protect IP Bill will “fight…criminal activity and job loss by arming the government with tools to disrupt the sale of stolen intellectual property on rogue websites” (Thomas Net News). What the article fails to acknowledge is that the government would still have power to take action against sites that are merely perceived to “enable or facilitate” infringement,” as noted by Sherwin Siy (E-Week Europe). If that is the case, what indicates pirate behaviors and are search engines such as Google and Bing subjected to that criteria? Ultimately, that boils down to the censorship of our Internet by the Protect IP Bill.

On the contrary to what supporters say, the bill would actually make the Internet a less safe place for intellectual and creative industry, which would disadvantage the US in online business competition (Intellectual Property Watch).

While Tom Giovanetti of the Institute for Policy Innovation can tell “consumer groups and other concerned parties [to] just trust the government to do the right thing,” we need to sign the petition now to stop Internet censorship and the threat on net neutrality because the Protect IP Bill is not the right thing.