Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Wikipedia Shuts Down in Piracy Protest


By: Olga Gromova

Wikipedia, Google, Reddit.com, and Craigslist have joined forces in the fight against SOPA and PIPA.  Wikipedia has shut down their entire site for 24 hours and created a landing page that reads “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge. For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.” Google has blacked out its banner and posted a caption that reads: “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!”  Reddit.com has shut down for 12 hours and Craigslist has changing its local home pages to a black screen directing users to an anti-legislation page.

Already the protest has caused waves in the media and raised great amounts of attention around the proposed bills. While 24 hours without Wikipedia is no walk in the park, I personally think that huge waves could be made if Facebook and Twitter jumped into the picket line. I bet if Facebook shut down for a day with a statement saying that they would re-open once a certain number of people reached out to congress these bills would be squashed in no time. 

For more information on the SOPA and PIPA acts please visit:

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