Wikipedia will be doing something drastic on January 18, 2012, something that Reddit had also decided to do recently. It will shut down operations for one day as part of its protest action against the notorious US Congress bill, the Stop Online Piracy or SOPA. Wikipedia visitors on that day will not see the usual Wikipedia page; instead, they will be staring on the screen the company’s stand against SOPA.
Wikipedia and Reddit will be among those that will be greatly affected by SOPA if the bill becomes a law. SOPA aims to establish stricter regulation and heavier penalties on internet users who will be caught violating intellectual and copyright laws. Anti-SOPA activists said this bill will curtail the freedom of expression which the internet is all about.
The announcement of the shutdown was made via tweet of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. He said that the decision was a consensus among Wikipedia users. It was also clarified that the shutdown will be global, but will affect only pages in the English language. According to Wales, he hopes that the temporary shutdown of Wikipedia will cause a meltdown of phone systems in Washington. This means that he expects to create an awareness among Wikipedia users about SOPA, which Wales called a “bad law” and prompt them to call legislators at Washington to vote against the bill.
The action may be effective considering that Wikipedia is said to have visitors of up to 25 million per day. The problem is that not all of the affected Wikipedia users would care about a domestic political issue in the US. In fact, Twitter, which is also anti-SOPA, called the action foolish on this ground.
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Tags: stop online piracy act, wikipedia against sopa, wikipedia shutdown, wikipedia shutdown 24 hours
