See? Congress does listen to the will of the people on occasion — especially when that will is wielded as a blunt instrument. As this infographic from ProPublica illustrates, yesterday’s blackout protests not only culled the official SOPA supporters by 15 congressmen, it actually added 70 opponents.
In all, official supporters for the House’s anti-piracy bill dropped from 80 members to 65 over Wednesday night, while the bill’s opponents swelled from just 30 members to 101 with another 41 polling as “leaning no”. Granted the “leaning no” crowd hasn’t ruled out voting for an amended version of the bill at a later date, doubling opposition to the bill overnight is a promising start. It’s amazing what 24 hours without Wikipedia will do. [Propublica]
And here is a larger size of the image: