The Pussycat Riot - Fighting Internet Censorship

 

Sometimes it seems the internet was invented for cat videos. I'm definitely a mad cat lady and love to watch YouTube clips of kittens rolling around and am a big fan of Grumpy Cat. But there are countries and governments which aren't so keen on letting their citizens giggle over the piano playing cat or the one that looks surprised when it has its tummy tickled. Not only that, but they don't give their people access to information about what is going on in the outside world, or allow them to discuss news and current events on social media, as a form of suppression.

The Pussycat Riot aims to help change that. No, not the Russian protest punk rock group - that's Pussy Riot. Pussycat Riot is uniting the cats of the internet, because after all,Freedom is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Cats know everything.

According to The Pussycat Riot, about 4 million cat pictures and videos are shared on the internet every single day (and not all of them are from me). As it says on its website, "However, cuteness and humour aside, what all of the cats on the net also represent is something within ourselves: our right to be grumpy on a Monday, our right to play the keyboard at inappropriate moments, and our right to sit, content, in a tiny cardboard box. Internet cat content is a symbol of our freedoms."

 Using the hashtag #ThePussycatRiot they want to raise awareness of the issue of internet censorship and have enlisted various famous internet cats (and presumably their owners), including one of my favourites Princess Monster Truck (check out the website if you don't know who she is) and have asked bloggers who are also cat owners to 'join the revolution'. They sent me a selection of badges and a bandana which you can see my cat Tilly modelling here, though she is rocking it as a scarf more than a bandana.

You can show your support for the campaign by tweeting with the hashtag #ThePussycatRiot or purchasing one of the products from their online shop - they have an amusing line in litter trays bearing the image of certain world leaders!

The Pussycat Riot, established by global VPN provider HideMyAss.com, calls on cat owners to protest against regimes that deny their citizens the right to access websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter; which not only robs them of news, ideas, opinion and knowledge, but also prevents them from experiencing the innocent delights of online cat pictures and videos.