The Hill Poll: Web blackouts got most voters’ attention

Many — but not all — of likely voters noticed Wednesday when sites including Google and Wikipedia altered their online pages to protest two intellectual-property bills Congress is considering.

More than 6 in 10 likely voters, according to The Hill Poll, said they saw Wednesday’s protests, while 26 percent said they did not. Twelve percent were not sure.

Sixty-seven percent of those aged 18-39 said they had seen the protests, as did 65 percent of those aged 40-64. But just 41 percent of those aged 65 or older said they noticed them.

On Friday, congressional leaders said they would postpone work on the Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (STOP), which are meant to strengthen copyright protections online but which many fear will stifle free expression.

Many members of Congress withdrew their support from the measures Wednesday after the protests prompted waves of user phone calls to Capitol Hill.

The forms of protest against PIPA and SOPA varied, with Wikipedia and Reddit going dark for a full day and Google placing a black bar on its logo.

Click here to view data from The Hill Poll.

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