The world’s most popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is
going on strike on Wednesday. The “knowledge blackout” is aimed
at protecting the Internet - and the website’s very existence –
from online censorship. The Wikipedia community and the
Wikimedia foundation decided on a global blackout of the English
version of the website for 24 hours starting at 05:00 UTC on
January 18. The move followed a heated discussion which
attracted the highest number of participants in the project’s
11-year history. The blackout of one of the Internet’s most-
visited places is meant to stop SOPA and PIPA, two controversial
anti-piracy bills currently on the table in the US Congress. The
bills, if they pass into law, would greatly increase the powers
of law enforcement agencies and copyright holders to prosecute
online infringement. The bills would cripple the Internet,
effectively killing all websites allowing user-uploaded content,
endangering potential whistleblowers and severely damaging
online freedom of speech, say its nu