Online encyclopedia Wikipedia will black out its website tomorrow for 24 hours to protest anti-piracy bills under consideration in the US Congress, saying if passed, the "destructive" legislation will "endanger" free speech and impose censorship on international websites.
"In an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States -- the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the US Senate," said a statement by Wikimedia Foundation's Head of Communications Jay Walsh.
Walsh said the legislation will "harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites in the US."
The decision to "go dark" came after three days of discussions by 1800 Wikipedians over proposed actions that the community could take against SOPA and PIPA, illustrating the "level of concern" Wikipedians feel about the proposed legislation.
"The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.
Terming the shut down as an "extraordinary action" for its community, Wales said: "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 US and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of internet censorship for the world."
