Some major websites went dark briefly Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET as part
of a national moment of silence for the victims of last week's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Dozens of sites
participated, including Aol, The Huffington Post and Digg, and more than
100,000 people and sites have pledged to participate on the Causes.com
page for the Web Goes Silent campaign. People and companies are also spreading the word by tweeting their intention to go quiet with the hashtag #momentforSandyHook.
High-profile Silicon
Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway promoted the online moment of
silence, which is part of a larger campaign for federal gun control
legislation. Conway is leading the Causes.com campaign along with other
big names including Ryan Seacrest, Jack Dorsey, Britney Spears, MC
Hammer, Suze Orman and Tyler Florence.
Causes.com is a startup
that uses social media to raise awareness and funds for charities and
causes. Conway is also an investor in the for-profit company.
Sites that participated
in Friday's moment of silence were invited to do so on their own, or it
can embed an official badge with a green ribbon on their sites. Sites
using the code appeared grayed out in the background with a white box in
the foreground that reads "We are observing a National Moment of
Silence for the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy."
Conway joined other tech notables and some celebrities to demand action for stronger gun control in a full-page ad
in the Wednesday print edition of the New York Times. The ad was run by
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a lobbying group of more than 700 U.S.
mayors. It started the Demand A Plan campaign
to reform gun laws after the Aurora, Colorado, shootings in July, and
it has seen a surge in new support after the Sandy Hook shootings.
Collected from CNN--
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