Wikipedia To Blackout In SOPA Protest
In protest against SOPA, Wikipedia have announced that the English version of the site will be blacked out for 24 hours, starting Wednesday 18 January 2012 from 05:00 GMT.
In the last few days, over 1800 Wikipedians joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011) It was the largest gathering of Wikipedians yet seen on Wikipedia. The overwhelming majority voted in support of the action.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tweeted a hint of what was to come earlier in the week, in which he said “Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!” In the announcement he continued, “Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation. This is an extraordinary action for our community to take – and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world.”
The non-English language versions of the site have murmured their support with banners, but no blackout. Other sites that have announced plans to go dark on Thursday include the Imgur online image hosting service and Reddit, a social news web site.
Note: SOPA is not dead. It has been shelved and its equally dangerous cousin PIPA is slated to be passed by congressmen. We fear that SOPA may be slipped inside some anti-terrorism act to be passed easily without much protest. So, stay vigilant.
Source : http://www.muktware.com/
