Wikipedia and Others Go Dark Today to Protest Web Piracy Bills

By Rob Scott
January 18, 2012

Wikipedia has joined other sites in going dark today in protest of two proposed bills — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate.
From midnight Tuesday until midnight Wednesday (ET), people who try to visit the English Wikipedia homepage will be redirected to a temporary page, “Imagine a World without Free Knowledge” that includes information regarding SOPA and PIPA and a zipcode search to contact political representatives.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said the blackout is intended to show lawmakers and regulators that people who work on the Internet do not support the bills.
According to Wales, 460 million people around the world visit Wikipedia each month. The blackout could affect as many as 100 million people.
The WordPress homepage and some other international Wikipedia pages will post similar notices. Technology/culture blog BoingBoing and social news site Reddit will also blackout their sites for the day.
Google opted not to go dark with its search service for the day, but a black bar is blocking its doodle art logo. The bar links to a page that states: “Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.”

No Comments Yet