Some websites are stepping into the shadows for a day in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act.
On Wednesday, several sites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and WordPress, will pull the plug on their sites in a blackout strike against the United States Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House’s SOPA bill.
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia cofounder, announced Wikipedia’s protest yesterday in a tweet and said, “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!”
World Report: The Student Journal for International Affairs, a website ran by Ohio University students, will also black out for a day in protest of the legislation.
"I think that these websites are blacking out because they know that they have such a large consumer base, and since people depend on their sites, they'll be more likely to take action and write to senators," said Shad Bauer, an OU philosophy instructor. "I do think that the protests will be effective."
Matthew Bishop, the founder, director and chief executive office of World Report, said he encourages everyone to become involved in the protests.
“It is our belief that we need to fight against censorship to maintain that public forum, instead of fighting against those who would utilize knowledge, public or private, for the benefit of global discourse,” Bishop said in a statement.
Imgur, a popular image-sharing site created by OU alumni, recently switched its domain names from GoDaddy to Namecheap in protest of GoDaddy’s initial support of SOPA.
“It truly is censorship, and SOPA really is the first government step towards online censorship,” said Alan Schaaf, a 2010 computer science graduate from OU and the founder of Imgur.
bc822010@ohiou.edu
