A reported 7,000 websites including Wikipedia will take part today in a voluntary internet blackout worldwide to raise awareness of the controversial SOPA & PIPA anti-piracy bills.
In protest against the controversial US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) & Protect IP (PIPA) anti-piracy bills, a reported 7,000 web sites will voluntarily shut down today for 24 hours in perhaps the broadest demonstration ever of internet-powered political action.
The proposed legislation ostensibly defends US intellectual property interests, targeting online piracy as conducted by "rogue" web sites, but critics of the bills argue that, if passed, they would provide media companies with unfettered powers to control the internet while endangering user rights to free speech and the free flow of information on the web.
Notable sites taking part in today's action include Wikipedia, Mozilla, Wordpress, Reddit and Boing Boing. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced in a statement this week: "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."
Twitter, Google and Facebook have all publicly opposed the proposed laws but have stopped short of agreeing to shut down their services during the protest. Google has announced it will take part in the demonstration by placing a link on its home page which informs users of its position on the matter.
Critics of the worldwide nature of the blackout argue that an international action is theatrical overkill, especially seeing as the subject of the protest is inherently a domestic US political issue, but Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, begs to differ: "Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? ... The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away... Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone."
