Wikipedia will take its English language website offline tomorrow in protest against the anti-piracy laws that have been proposed in the US.
The blackout will take place tomorrow US time against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.
The company has stated in a press release that, if passed, the legislation would “harm the free and open internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States”.
“This is an extraordinary action for our community to take – and 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 United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that its website would not follow Wikipedia’s lead, and in a tweet described the blackout as “silly” because it closes a global website in response to national politics.