Inside.com - March 8, 2001
'TAKE BACK THE NET' DAY SET ASIDE FOR SHOPPING AND INVESTING
Can a one-day online buying spree save the struggling Net economy? That's the hope of a new grass-roots movement which has declared April 3 "Take Back The Net" day, and is encouraging Internet users to demonstrate their dedication to the Internet by shopping online and avoiding offline retail stores on that day. The movement also encourages people to buy 10 shares of an online company they admire that same day, noting that "your participation will send a signal to Wall Street that Netizens will not abandon their favorite medium." The campaign is the brainchild of Michael Tchong, editor and founder of e-marketing newsletter Iconocast, who is hyping the movement from the Iconocast Web site. The site explains that April 3 was chosen because it commemorates the one-year anniversary of the Nadaq's "fifth worst defeat ever," a day which sparked the "viral lack of confidence" which has permeated the industry for the past year.
In addition to motivating shoppers to buy online, the site offers downloadable banner ads for webmasters looking to support the cause, and even an official "Take Back The Net" anthem -- "Get Off My Land" by electronic act Operatica. But the best bit of revolutionary banter on the site is the movement's manifesto. It reads: "As Netizens, we hold certain truths to be self evident: that the Internet was created and endowed by its Creator with certain unalienable rights, chief among these: free access to uncensored content, the ability to shop wherever and whenever one chooses and the general pursuit of e-happiness. And that whenever any despotic force threatens these truths, it is the right and duty of Netizens to throw off such tyranny and misunderstanding." No word on whether the "despotic force" referred to is bad business plans.
http://www.iconocast.com/crusade/index.html