Thanks for this announcement Jay, and everyone involved in the planning of this unprecedented action.
Quick clarification: What time, precisely, will this be occurring? The on-wiki summary states "...for 24 hours starting at 05:00 UTC on January 18, 2012, or at another time as determined by the Wikimedia Foundation." could you just confirm what time this will happen, thanks. -Liam On Tuesday, 17 January 2012, Jay Walsh <[email protected]> wrote: > Please also see the related blog post, > http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-sopa-blackout-january-18/ > > The release is posted here: > http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_dark > > *English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA > * > San Francisco -- January 16, 2012 -- On January 18, 2012, 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 > U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If > passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring > about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United > States. > > Wikipedia administrators confirmed this decision Monday afternoon (PST) in > a public statement ( > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_conclusion > ): > > Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined > together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take > against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in > a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level > of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The > overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage > greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals > considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the > English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites > opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support. > > “Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition > to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. > "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." > > We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the > United States, find your elected representative in Washington ( > https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States, > contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar > branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the > internet to remain open and free. > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > -- Peace, love & metadata _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
