Websites Go Silent for Victims of Sandy Hook Shooting

Dec. 21, 2012 — -- At 9:30 a.m. ET this morning a moment of silence was observed in recognition of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting one week ago. But the silence wasn't just in the physical world.

Many refrained from using Twitter, Facebook and other web services for the moment. Additionally, a number of websites went silent or dark for the 20 children and six adults who were killed last week when Adam Lanza opened fire in an elementary school.

The web-wide moment of silence was organized by Causes.com and Nick Grossman, a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab, at http://www.webmomentofsilence.org. Hundreds of sites, including Digg, iVillage, Foursquare, E Online, Gilt and more used a banner provided by the group.

FULL COVERAGE: Newtown Ct. Elementary School Shooting

The banner, pictured above, read: "We are observing a National Moment of Silence for the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy." The rest of the site faded out with a gray skin.

On Twitter, many vowed to not Tweet for the moment and tweeted #momentforsandyhook. Others on Twitter and Facebook extended the minute to five, vowing not to use the Internet and to reflect on the tragedy from 9:30 a.m. to 9:35 a.m.

"We encourage all of you to join us by not Tweeting, posting to Facebook, emailing or texting for five minutes, starting at 9:30 AM ET," Mashable's Launce Ulanoff wrote. The site didn't update its homepage for five minutes. Similarly, ABC News streamed the photos of the children and the service in Newtown on the homepage of its website.