Firefox Users Engage Congress: SOPA Strike Stats

Yesterday, we blacked out the default start page in Firefox and redirected visitors to the Mozilla sites to a special action page. We also sent direct messages to members of the Mozilla community through multiple online channels. All these steps were aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of people on the poorly drafted anti-piracy legislation – SOPA and PIPA – pending in Congress.

The result: Mozilla reached over 40 million people who, in turn, generated 360,000 emails sent to Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Here’s the breakdown of the stats from yesterday’s remarkable campaign:

• Approximately 30 million people in the US who use the default start page in Firefox received the blacked out page with our call to action
• We sent messages out to almost 9 million people via Facebook, Twitter and our Firefox + You newsletter
• Our messages were retweeted, shared and liked by over 20,000 people (not counting MC Hammer’s tweet to his 2.4 million followers!)
• 1.8 million people came to mozilla.org/sopa to learn more and take action on the issue
• 600,000 went on to visit the Strike Against Censorship page, hosted by the EFF
• Ultimately, 360,000 emails were sent by Mozillians to members of Congress, contributing a third of all the emails generated by EFF’s campaign site.

The debate is far from over. There’s a vote next week in the Senate. Keep the pressure on and make sure your elected officials understand the nuance of the issue and the importance of protecting the open Web.