While Reddit is going full force toward its twelve hour blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA, Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales considers following suit.
The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, as its commonly known, is a bill that has been gaining traction in Congress, so much in fact, that as I discussed a few months ago, it threatens to destroy the internet as we know it.
Well since then, news has not been great, although enthusiasm from certain companies has waned. Despite potential incalculable damage to their respective business models, outspoken critics of SOPA, such as Facebook and Google, have done little to actively protest the bill. However, social media aggregate site Reddit has taken it a step further, and has decided to ‘black out’ its servers in protest on January 18th for approximately twelve hours.
Since the announcement, prominent gaming blog Destructioid, and the Cheezburger network are both taking part. Now Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is considering following in Reddit’s footsteps, and expressed his interest in the idea on a note on Wikipedia:
“I’m all in favor of it, and I think it would be great if we could act quickly to coordinate with Reddit. I’d like to talk to our government affairs advisor to see if they agree on this as useful timing, but assuming that’s a greenlight, I think that matching what Reddit does … is a good idea,”
Even if Wikipedia does coordinate with Reddit, Facebook and Google would have to join in protest to make a true impact upon the Internet, forcing people to wake up and smell their lack of internet freedom. If that doesn’t happen, then the blackout would be more symbolic than anything, and would really have no real impact on the average internet user.
Daniel Horowitz
Daniel Horowitz has worked as a film technician and teacher assistant at Sarah Lawrence College, despite having little technical knowledge. In fact, he previously did not know how work the copy machine. When he’s not writing about, reviewing, or playing with games, entertainment ...
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Chezburger, Destructoid, facebook, Google, Jimmy Wales, Reddit, SOPA, US Government, Wikipedia
