A black day for free internet
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 3:52 am
The lawsuit that the Brein foundation filed against Ziggo and XS4ALL is also a death knell of a brother cell phone list traditional system. Both providers have now announced that they will appeal. XS4ALL director Theo de Vries said the following about the judge's ruling:
“This is a black day for free internet. I see this as a genuflection to the entertainment industry: the commercial interests of a few large companies are considered more important than the fundamental rights of Dutch citizens. […] The solution lies in new business models, in the reality of the digital world. Information can be spread effortlessly and at lightning speed. You have to adapt to that reality instead of resisting it by demanding blockades.”
It is expected that Ziggo and XS4ALL will still be proven right, especially given the current commotion in the United States surrounding the SOPA and PIPA bills.
Digital subcultures like Facebook, Wikipedia, Tumblr, Reddit, and Craigslist ramped up the pressure against SOPA and PIPA in week 4. More than 162 million page views of Wikipedia were served up last week, all of which were related to this topic. Google collected more than 7 million signatures online against the bills. On Twitter, more than 2.4 million tweets contained anti-SOPA/PIPA statements, a personal message from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking out against the two bills, received more than 75,000 “likes” in ten minutes , and more than 140,000 phone calls were made via Tumblr to the offices of various senators. Under the pressure of this B(l)itz-krieg of public opinion, in a matter of days, members of Congress went from predominantly positive to negative towards the bills.
“This is a black day for free internet. I see this as a genuflection to the entertainment industry: the commercial interests of a few large companies are considered more important than the fundamental rights of Dutch citizens. […] The solution lies in new business models, in the reality of the digital world. Information can be spread effortlessly and at lightning speed. You have to adapt to that reality instead of resisting it by demanding blockades.”
It is expected that Ziggo and XS4ALL will still be proven right, especially given the current commotion in the United States surrounding the SOPA and PIPA bills.
Digital subcultures like Facebook, Wikipedia, Tumblr, Reddit, and Craigslist ramped up the pressure against SOPA and PIPA in week 4. More than 162 million page views of Wikipedia were served up last week, all of which were related to this topic. Google collected more than 7 million signatures online against the bills. On Twitter, more than 2.4 million tweets contained anti-SOPA/PIPA statements, a personal message from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking out against the two bills, received more than 75,000 “likes” in ten minutes , and more than 140,000 phone calls were made via Tumblr to the offices of various senators. Under the pressure of this B(l)itz-krieg of public opinion, in a matter of days, members of Congress went from predominantly positive to negative towards the bills.