SOPA & PIPA Strike and Protest

SOPA & PIPA Strike and Protest

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, the Internet (well, a majority of websites, including Wikipedia, WordPress, and many thousands) are blacking out in protest of the SOPA and PIPA legislation currently before Congress.


Comment from SOPAstike.com: (from this link you can also write your Representatives in Congress)

On Jan 24th, Congress will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. We need to kill the bill - PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House - to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity. We need internet companies to follow Reddit's lead and stand up for the web, as we internet users are doing every day.

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two pieces of legislation that the Internet industry says will halt innovation and undermine free expression.  With so many big Internet sites participating tomorrow, be prepared and support the protest.  Mozilla, the maker of the popular Internet browser Firefox, is another of the big names joing the day of protest and Google, although not blacking out, will be posting opposition to these two pieces of legislation on their sites.


Statement from Wikipedia about their decision to black out the English language Wikipedia pages, a first since its launch in 2001:

It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me; it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.

From an article in the Washington Post:

Google said Tuesday that it will post a statement on its Web site voicing its opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, joining a drive that will see Reddit, Wikipedia, and Boing Boing take their Web sites dark for a period of time on Jan. 18. Google’s actions will not be as dramatic as others — Reddit and Boing Boing will take their sites down for 12 hours starting at 8 a.m., while Wikipedia will black out its English content for 24 hours on Wednesday — but the company’s decision to use its U.S. home page means that its arguments regarding SOPA will reach a huge audience. 

In a statement, Google’s news team said, “Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet. So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our US home page.”

For a complete list of websites currently protesting via a Black Out, click here.


UPDATE (1/20/12):  Congressional supporters of SOPA and PIPA have backed out of supporting these bills.  Learn more about who and why by clicking here.