Will the Internet Go Silent?

With recent contention over SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) the popular communal news site, Reddit, will be shutting down on January 18, 2012. Don’t worry, however, the website will be back to its normal functioning form come January 19, just like it always has been and hopefully always will be.

Now, shutting down a website for a day doesn’t seem like much, but this demonstration will lose Reddit thousands of dollars in what would have been their advertisement revenue and other profits. The owners of Reddit have decided to make this statement to protest both SOPA and PIPA – two bills currently in the U.S. Senate. If these bills are passed, the internet in the U.S. may approach major censorship – similar to what we can see in China. Reddit’s main goal in shutting down for the day is to help spread the word that SOPA and PIPA will have very negative effects on what is today’s online community.

Furthermore, they are hoping that other major internet companies (Google, Wikipedia, etc.) will join in on the January 18th blackout to spread the message to more non-tech-savvy Internet users. 

What do you think? Will Reddit be the only major website shutting down on January 18th, or will Google and Wikipedia also join in on the protest?

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