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Revision as of 19:42, January 12, 2012

Project:Stop SOPA and PIPA
Grassroots whip-counting on Internet censorship.
Senate whip count  · Senate contact log
Tips for contacting senators  · Participate

Below are tips on how to effectively contact a senator about the Protect IP Act. Remember that you'll probably speak to an intern or junior staffer who won't be able to discuss the merits of the bill, but they can take your opinion and/or give you the Senator's position.

Tips for calling a senator about PIPA

1. If you're a constituent, they'll pay a lot more attention, so identify yourself as one if you can. (They may ask for your address to verify that.)
2. Tell them you're calling because you strongly oppose the Protect IP Act / S.968, which is scheduled for a vote on January 24th.
3. Ask if the senator has a position on the bill.

The staffer will likely respond one of three ways:

1. "I don't know"

Staffer: I don't have that information on-hand but that I'll register your opinion / get back to you.

You:

• Specifically request a formal response on the senator's position, either by email or phone (it's quicker).
• Reiterate that you strongly oppose the Internet censorship bill and that you'll be sharing the senator's position with your community and online social networks.
• Ask them to get back to you ASAP before January 24th.
• Bonus points: Add a short personal statement as to why you oppose the bill. For example: “I oppose PIPA because it would create the first-ever China-style internet censorship in the U.S. and would blacklist the websites I use every day to follow the news and share content with my friends”.
• Double bonus points: Log your call on the Protect IP Act Senate contact log so everyone can see how many calls a senator has gotten.

2. The non-committal response.

Staffer: "The senator does not have a position at this time."

You:

• Reiterate that you oppose the Internet censorship bill.
• Ask the senator to stand with the bipartisan group of senators who oppose the bill (Maria Cantwell, D-WA; Jerry Moran, R-KS; Rand Paul, R-KY; and Ron Wyden, D-OR) on January 24th.
• Ask them to contact you if the senator does take a position before January 24th, because you'll be sharing that with your community and online social networks.
• Bonus points: Add a short personal statement as to why you oppose the bill. For example: “I oppose PIPA because it would create the first-ever China-style internet censorship in the U.S. and would blacklist the websites I use every day to follow the news and share content with my friends”.
• Double bonus points: Mark the senator as "undeclared" on the Protect IP Act Senate whip count. If there's nothing new to report, please still log your call on the Protect IP Act Senate contact log so everyone can see how many calls a senator has gotten.

3. An actual response.

This is the best-case scenario.

Staffer: The senator supports/opposes S.968 (or is leaning one way or the other).

You:

• (If anything less than opposition) Reiterate that you oppose the Internet censorship bill.
• (If opposition) Thank the senator and tell the staffer that you'll be sharing his/her position with your community and online social networks.
• Double bonus points: If the position is different than what's recorded on the Protect IP Act Senate whip count. If there's nothing new to report, please still log your call on the Protect IP Act Senate contact log so everyone can see how many calls a senator has gotten.

How to log your call on the contact log and whip count page

Adding to the contact log: After your call, login to your free MyOC account (required to edit the wiki), and go to the Protect IP Act Senate contact log, find your senators, click the "edit" next to their name and simply make a note of the date & time that you called and your OC username (or real name if you prefer). Feel free to add any additional notes or context -- e.g., if you were able to speak to a legislative assistant as opposed to a junior staffer, or if they promised you a phone call before the vote and not just a letter in the mail later this month. So please do leave a note saying something simple like, “Just called - davidmoore, Jan. 3, 3:54pm ET, staffer answered the phone, said she didn’t know senator’s position on PIPA but she’d mail me a response and noted my opposition”.

Even if your call’s outcome was the same as a previous constituent, it’s good for the stop-SOPA campaign to know how many constituents have called each senator with their opposition.

After all, we hope that most senators’ offices will receive more than one call from constituents opposing SOPA / PIPA and requesting a response before the vote. Bigger-population states especially, such as CA & NY, should be able to generate hundreds of calls against these bills.

Editing the whip count:

Go to the Protect IP Act Senate whip count, scroll down to your senator and see if your call/email is different than what someone else has already entered. If so, your note on the contact log is good enough (see above). If you have new information, consult the key at the top of the whip count page to classify the senator's position, hit the "edit" next to their name, and use the drop-down menu to change their position. Make sure to leave a note or link in the notes field explaining how you got that information, for example, "Talked to a staffer on the phone on 1/20/12. Told me he supported the bill" or "She's quoted in this press release/tweet/article (link) as opposing the bill."

Hit "save". You're done!

Tips for emailing senators

Next, send your members an email using the Contact Congress tool on Open Congress. Contact Congress uses our system to send an email to Senate offices, but the beauty of it is that your senator's response is sent back through the system and you can post the link (totally optional) for everyone to see what they say. (Here's a great example of a reply from Sen. Maria Cantwell on PIPA.) This way, we can use that link as a definitive, reliable source on the whip count to note a senator's position. Not only are they now on the record, but there's no question of whether a person altered the email since it's all done through Contact Congress.

Follow this link to get started.

Enter your email and full street address at the top of the message builder to auto-find your senators and representative.

Compose your letter, clicking on information (especially campaign contribution data) on the right-hand side to bring it over to the left-hand side. Constituent communications can be enhanced by personal testimonials about how you value net freedom, as an Internet user, or how perhaps as a technologist you oppose the bill’s attempt to enforce China-style DNS blocking, or how you support free political speech online and don’t want one single government official to be able to ban a URL without review & accountability.

Complete the process to send your email through OC, and you’ll be taken to a permalink page to your letter. There, you can share it over social media and email with your community. Any auto-generated or form-letter response from the offices of your elected officials will automatically appear there, and you can comment on their response and share the results with your social network. It’s unlikely that the auto-response to your email will contain a new position on #SOPA or #PIPA, but if it does, please use that as documentation to add to the wiki community project and add your notes in the added-context page for that senator. (Next, we’ll offer a similar community-driven, volunteer-powered whip-count for SOPA specifically.)

Visit this campaign by the American Censorship coalition, composed of non-profit open Web advocates & technologists & public-mission organizations :: http://my.americancensorship.org/ . Simply find your state and join the discussion about how you can request an in-person meeting with your two U.S. senators and their offices during the January 2012 recess (in advance of PIPA’s first vote, fast-tracked by Sen. Majority Leader Reid for Jan. 24th) and register your opposition. In-person visits are a crucial & compelling component of the grassroots effort to combat net censorship. Your fellow constituents and American Censorship organizers will help provide you with talking points & factual materials for your vital face-to-face meetings with your senators -- even if you’re there to reinforce what others are saying, don’t miss a chance to add your presence to this netroots community effort.

Please compete all the above steps to fight censorship online: call your senators’ offices, email all three of your members of Congress, share your anti-PIPA letter over social media, and sign-up for an in-person meeting.

5. Email your members of Congress - next, send your members an email using Contact-Congress on OC and our unique message builder interface, then share a link to your letter with your community and social networks. Follow this link or the link on the whip count itself to get started. 

• Enter your email and full street address at the top of the message builder to auto-find your senators and representative.
• Compose your letter, clicking on information (especially campaign contribution data) on the right-hand side to bring it over to the left-hand side. Constituent communications can be enhanced by personal testimonials about how you value net freedom, as an Internet user, or how perhaps as a technologist you oppose the bill’s attempt to enforce China-style DNS blocking, or how you support free political speech online and don’t want one single government official to be able to ban a URL without review & accountability.
• Complete the process to send your email through OC, and you’ll be taken to a permalink page to your letter. There, you can share it over social media and email with your community. Any auto-generated or form-letter response from the offices of your elected officials will automatically appear there, and you can comment on their response and share the results with your social network. It’s unlikely that the auto-response to your email will contain a new position on #SOPA or #PIPA, but if it does, please use that as documentation to add to the wiki community project and add your notes in the added-context page for that senator. (Next, we’ll offer a similar community-driven, volunteer-powered whip-count for SOPA specifically.)