Wikipedia To Shut Down On Jan 18 To Protest SOPA & PIPA

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Jimmy Wales announced today through Twitter that Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia will go dark on Wednesday to protest against the so-called “piracy protection laws” SOPA and PIPA. The tweet from Jimmy Wales reads as,

Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!#sopa

So far Jimmy wales reveled that, the English version of the worlds sixth most used site, Wikipedia only would go dark and there isn’t any clarification on how the other language versions of Wikipedia are going to survive Jan 18 protest. TechCrunch mentioned that, the German language version of the site is also about to go through the Jan 18 shut down, as Jimmy Wales said.

wikipedia black out

This black out decision from Jimmy Wales kindled the debate on the need for Google and Facebook black out on Jan 18 to protest against SOPA and PIPA, all over the internet. Although Obama and White House turned their faces against SOPA, it’s PIPA now everyone is concerned about. Another Tweet from Jimmy Wales reads as,

“As for PIPA… Just yesterday, Reid reiterated his plans to bring the bill to the floor” – source in Washington #sopa#pipa

Although most of the comments about this Wikipedia black out sounds supportive, Twitter CEO pointed out this decision as silly and foolish through his tweet as,

@digiphile@jayrosen_nyu that’s just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.

And, his tweet sounds logically acceptable. In the mean while Jimmy Wales doesn’t wan’t twitter to be blacked out on Jan 18 in the name of SOPA and PIPA protest and he said that “the best action for twitter might be to let us continue to use the service to organize our protests”. Whatever happens, on Jan 18 we all are gonna miss Wikipedia and also it would be a day to realize how we are attached to Wikipedia and how Internet is attached to Wikipedia. Lets Face it.

Prabakaran Santhanam

Prabakaran Santhanam (Google+) is the editor of PaintsTheFuture.com. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with distinction. He once worked for CrazyEngineers.com's engineering & tech blog, VoiCE. Developing web apps, websites and small desktop apps were the things he does at night time, when he wasn't solving Sudoku. He can be contacted at praba230890@gmail.com or admin@paintsthefuture.com

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