[January 19, 2012] Latest protest targets anti-privacy bills Tweet Jan 18, 2012 (Boston Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Protests yesterday over the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills ratcheted up recent online activism marked by movements such as the Arab Spring, Occupy Boston and consumer revolts against new fees from Bank of America and Verizon Wireless. Molly Katchpole, a 22-year-old Cumberland, R.I. native living in Washington, started Change.org petitions against BofA and Verizon Wireless widely credited with swaying those companies' decisions on unpopular fees. She doesn't think her success would have been possible just a few years ago. "Definitely in the past two years -- especially with Twitter -- people using the Internet for organizing has been growing exponentially," Katchpole told the Herald. The BofA petition in October garnered more than 300,000 signatures. Katchpole thought the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement would give the petition a boost, but she was surprised by the number. "The end goal was to get them to cancel it," she said. "But I didn't think that was going to happen. I was really surprised." Katchpole's second petition hit Verizon Wireless over its planned fee for online bill payment, the morning after the fee was announced. More than 95,000 people signed before Verizon backtracked hours later. "That one exploded completely," she said. "That was exciting." Matt Stempeck, research assistant at the Center for Civic Media at the MIT Media Lab, said the explosion in online protesting stems from improving technology -- specifically user interfaces that make it simple for almost anyone to organize. "The tools have gotten a lot better," Stempeck said. "It's easier to organize large groups of people around your issue." [email protected] ___ (c)2012 the Boston Herald Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]