3 million people and counting sign petitions against SOPA and PIPA

Update: Google said that 4.5 million people have added their signatures to the SOPA/PIPA petition since this morning. Mark Zuckerberg also threw his hat in the ring, Silicon Alley had a rad protest and a bunch of legislators who sponsored these bills withdrew their support. The internet is really flexing its political muscle.

Google blacked out the logo on its main page today to protest the controversial anti-piracy legislation, SOPA and PIPA, being debated in the House and Senate. They didn’t go full service blackout like Wikipedia and Reddit, but, hey, they’ve got a business to run.

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Clicking on the blacked out logo takes you to a graphic with some interesting statistics on the battle against SOPA/PIPA to date. It starts with a single dissenting voice, Vint Cerf, a founding father of the internet and Chief Evangelist for the internet at Google. It expands to show the 3,000,000 people who have so far signed petitions opposing these bills.

We’ll be covering the New York Tech Meetup’s emergency protest, aka Rally for The Future of the Internet, outside the offices of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand this afternoon at 12:30. So far 1,300 people have signed up for the event, including a number of the biggest names in the Silicon Alley startup and venture communities. Be sure to check back then for live updates, photos, and video.

Full PFD of Google’s Take Action Infographic