What Happened to the Fight for the Internet?
The article contrasts the successful 2012 grassroots fight against SOPA/PIPA with the failed 2017 effort to stop net neutrality repeal, arguing the movement declined by relying on big tech companies whose corporate interests undermined genuine public control.
Background
- Chris Trottier (atymic) is a veteran of the "Fight for the Future" era (c. 2010–2015), when mass protests like the 2012 SOPA/PIPA blackouts and the 2014 net neutrality campaign mobilized millions to defend the open internet.
- This post reflects on why that energy dissipated. Key factors: the Obama-era FCC's Title II net neutrality rules were repealed in 2017 under Trump's FCC chair Ajit Pai; the activist left splintered into culture-war factions; Big Tech co-opted reform rhetoric while entrenching surveillance capitalism; and many old-guard internet activists burnt out or moved on.
- The author argues that the fight stalled not because people stopped caring, but because the movement lacked a sustained institutional or political home after early tactical wins, and because the 'free and open internet' message was too vague to withstand capture by corporate and partisan interests.