Powell, Alison, Assessing the Influence of Online Activism on Internet Policy-Making: The Case of SOPA/PIPA (March 30, 2012).
From the abstract: "This paper analyzes the influence of online activism, especially technical activist actions like web blackouts, on the policy-making process. It presents an assessment of the differential influence of various forms of policy advocacy, based on a review of all actions related to the Stop SOPA campaign, but particularly the web site blocks and shutdowns of January 18, 2012. Preliminary research suggests that most sites who participated left site access unchanged, but added symbolic blackouts or messages inviting citizens to contact their representatives. This suggests that the Jan 18 action was significant in 1. connecting the proposed laws with a discourse of internet censorship and 2. amplifying that discourse through online and mass media to provoke a policy response." Read more
