SOPA is a new act drafted by a Texas politician meant to give certain people the tools to shut down “rogue foreign sites”. It stands for Stop Online Piracy Act – while the idea seems benign, the legislation is badly written.With ambiguities like “engages in, enables, or facilitates” the definition of a site Dedicated to Theft of US Property can be defined as any website that contains a link to material deemed pirated. With the way the legalese is written, the government will be allowed to shut down any site where any user posts a link to “stolen” or “pirated” content. This means that sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook can technically be shut down under this new act.

Though the intent of the Act is to help the relevant actors control the way their content is distributed, it gives the government the ability to pre-emptively censor the internet,  suppressing freedom of speech.