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YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Wikipedia to blackout all 3,847,673 English-language pages to protest PIPA

    Wikipedia is going black on Wednesday, January 18, to help fight the contentious Protect IP Act (PIPA), which is set to go for a vote before the Senate on January 24. The move, first reported by Neal Mann, digital news editor at Sky News, was confirmed by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the far-reaching online encyclopedia, on Twitter. Wales says the blackout was a “community decision.”

    The blackout will only apply to English-language articles on Wikipedia — all 3,847,673 of them. It will run from 12am ET on Wednesday, through 11:59pm, says Wales, who estimates that as many as 100 million people will view the blocked protest pages.

    Wales first proposed a blackout of the site in early December of last year, and asked the Wikipedia community for their input. According to a chart of the responses, created by hacker Shishir Bashyal, nearly 86.6 percent or respondents supported the move, while only 10.5 percent voice opposition to a Wikipedia blackout.

    Wikipedia joins the likes of Reddit.com, BoingBoing.net, IHeartChaos.com, and the entire Cheezburger Network, among others, all of which will also be blacked out on Wednesday.

    While now focused on PIPA, these planned blackouts were also originally intended to voice opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This past weekend, however, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told SOPA opponents in Congress that SOPA would not come up for a vote until consensus on the bill could be met. This follows a declaration from the White House that it would oppose any “legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet” — all of which SOPA and PIPA would do, according to critics of these bills.

    This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

    More from Digital Trends

    SOPA ‘shelved’ indefinitely, but Reddit’s Jan. 18 blackout is still on, as PIPA fight continues [Update: Wikipedia joins blackout]

    Mojang and others join reddit for Jan. 18 blackout, Wikipedia indecisive

    The 439 organizations SOPA opponents should worry about [updated]

    Mozilla asks users to join ‘Stop SOPA & PIPA’ campaign

     
    • EtD  •  Portland, Oregon  •  4 mths ago
      While this is an execellent statement, I believe a more effective and appreciable move would be for Google to shutdown for the day as well. Facebook would also be effective in making the statement, as I'm sure that they will also be hit hard by this legislation, but I doubt Zuckerburg has the balls to do it.
      • Just another Google data ... 4 mths ago
        There is no chance in hell of Google shutting down willingly, they might miss collecting a piece of data on someone
      • Rich 4 mths ago
        and loose money. Google is ALL about money, not freedom.
      • teresainacoma 4 mths ago
        Google is supporting/funding this... why would they shut down and Facebook??? c'mon really half of our nation would die from withdraw.....seriously!!
    • Ron  •  4 mths ago
      I am sure I do not want my elected representative to even consider this legislation. I really do not think they should be legislating for control and criminalization of more stuff. Has anyone else noticed a growing trend of the government to legislate one or more of your daily activities and find a way to fine or impinge on your life as a result?No tea party #$%$ here, but they do work for us, not in competition with us. Because they are supposed to be of us. Start voting, and start running for office if you have the time to commit, grow up America. We were all left a precious gift, and you are now watching it being taken away little by little and doing nothing of it. There are not more bad people than good ones in this country. Take it back, everywhere!
      • Patrick Jacov 4 mths ago
        Well put. We The People have got to stand up and take back our nation. We do not need more laws. We need to enforce the ones already on the books and get rid of the laws taking away our freedoms.
      • Midobeckers 4 mths ago
        I mostly agree with you. The only exception is the no republican candidates is going to get our country in the right direction either. So, how are we supposed to take the country back? The status quo and political establishment will not change unless people take it to the streets everywhere and protest this actions. You saw what happened to the 99% protest. tea party backers talk a lot about freedom but the hate against the black president will not let them see the real issues. Remember the phrase: " Be careful what you which for, " it might come back to bite you. i do not agree with some of the policies from obama administration, but let's be honest; these whole mess got started with Dumb W. It is true that Obama had to borrow lot of money to keep the economy afloat. Nevertheless, everyone in here seems to forget how bad republican have been on economic's issues. Clinton kept the economy going and obama received a country so mess up and it will take radicals measures to reverse the damages. the fact remains that not matter who is in government, democrats or republicans, the federal as well as the state governments keep passing measures and laws to keep the population in check. no one will be able to protest anything. however, whose fault is that? People keep getting caught up on religion and political difference. Republicans believe that all democrats are somehow communist and democrats believe all republicans are nothing but money mongers. All I know is; if these type of law passed and we do not review the patriot act all of our liberties will be taking away in the name of security.
      • Allen 4 mths ago
        Yes, the Republicans want less government--except where they want more--it's all about CONTROL!
    • Al  •  4 mths ago
      Down with SOPA!!!!
    • Manny  •  4 mths ago
      In other news, the US congress has had a brain blackout for years.
      • Rob 4 mths ago
        don't you mean, 'in related news'???
      • KennethT 4 mths ago
        You can't have a blackout of something that doesn't exist.
      • Nickhexum 4 mths ago
        Nope, they know exactly what theyre doing and they are doing it soo welll..destroying freedom/ civil liberties, killing the middle class..thats the plan and its being executed perfectly.
    • ulalume  •  Carlsbad, California  •  4 mths ago
      I guess passing SOPA and PIPA is no longer a priority since the NDAA was signed into law. Now, if the government doesn't like what you have to say, they can just make you disappear .
      • PhilK 4 mths ago
        They always could before. They don't need any stinking badges!
      • Joe Bananas 4 mths ago
        nothing stopped them before. now it's just a law that they can.
      • Tim 4 mths ago
        now theres a bill that strips your us citizenship if you dont agree with the govt.
    • celexiey  •  Bridgeport, Connecticut  •  4 mths ago
      Since the goverment wants to be all in your busines on the internet ...why don't they come up with a funding to pay for your usage as well ...LEAVE THE INTERNET ALONE IT'S THE ONLY ENJOYMENT LEFT FOR MOST...Television has suck for many years as the way congress have to it's people...
      • Robert 4 mths ago
        What about sex?
    • John  •  4 mths ago
      Why not just have anonymous blackout all the congressional web pages & internal servers?
    • Done  •  4 mths ago
      lets all show the entertainment industry how it could be for the next thirty days please do NOT buy any CDs DVDs no online purchase of such as well. Everyone stay away from movie theaters music stores and so on you get the point right. stand up folks hit them where it hurts there pocket.
    • Sunset  •  Batesville, Indiana  •  4 mths ago
      What should scare all of us is, what else is attached to this bill?
    • Troll  •  North Pole, Alaska  •  4 mths ago
      Leave the interwebs alone
    • Julius  •  Cleveland, Ohio  •  4 mths ago
      Only got a second...I have 4 million WIKI pages to copy and paste!
    • Mike  •  Charlotte, North Carolina  •  4 mths ago
      This and SOPA needs to be blocked.
    • Craig Robertson  •  4 mths ago
      If this legislation passes, I hope Google and Yahoo and Wikipedia block every single reference and link to Congress on the Internet. Wouldn't that be funny.

      The government abuse brought about by that legislation would be unimaginable.
    • Zombie Birdhouse  •  4 mths ago
      When a government righteously proclaims that it needs to protect the citizenry from themselves, then Big Brother is just around the corner.
    • My Two Cents  •  4 mths ago
      That sound you hear are more of our rights being taken away.
    • Arjuna  •  4 mths ago
      Craigslist also opposes both PIPA and SOPA.
    • greg  •  4 mths ago
      Here's modern politics for you: Freedom of speech until it criticizes your Government. (If you are not for us, you are with the terrorists!) What a crock of #$%$
    • X Wigglez  •  Visalia, California  •  4 mths ago
      I guess passing SOPA and PIPA is no longer a priority since the NDAA was signed into law. Now, if the government doesn't like what you have to say, they can just make you disappear
    • Tom  •  4 mths ago
      If you don't want these laws to pass, write a letter to Congress and tell them. I did.
    • Caroline  •  Richardson, Texas  •  4 mths ago
      SOPA and PIPA are the most serious threats to your freedom of speech, that this nation has ever been exposed to. Learn about this issue before it's too late. Go to americancensorship*org to find info for yourself.
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