Reddit Turning SOPA "Blackout" Into a "Learn-In"

[Daniel]

Reddit's planned 12-hour 'blackout' on January 18 sounds like an ineffectual, if not self-defeating, strategy for opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act. But the social news site actually will use that time not to 'go dark,' but to educate visitors about the ramifications of the House legislation that many fear will lead to widespread shutdowns of Internet sites.

http://www.itworld.com/internet/2407...test-sopa-pipa

Daniel Reviewed by Daniel on 11th Jan 2012. Reddit Turning SOPA "Blackout" Into a "Learn-In" Reddit's planned 12-hour 'blackout' on January 18 sounds like an ineffectual, if not self-defeating, strategy for opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act. But the social news site actually will use that time not to 'go dark,' but to educate visitors about the ramifications of the House legislation that many fear will lead to widespread shutdowns of Internet sites. http://www.itworld.com/internet/240741/reddit-shut-itself-down-12-hours-protest-sopa-pipa Rating: 5

[ShareShiz]

Reddit to go dark January 18 to protest SOPA
By John Callaham

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been in the news a lot lately. The legislation, which is currently being debated in the US Congress, has come under fire by many fronts in the tech industry for being too broad of a law that could affect any web site operator. This week, the popular user generated news site Reddit announced that one week from today, January 18, it would go dark in protest of SOPA.

In their message announcing the black out of the web site, Reddit announced:

Instead of the normal glorious, user-curated chaos of reddit, we will be displaying a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action. We will showcase the live video stream of the House hearing where Internet entrepreneurs and technical experts (including reddit co-founder Alexis ?kn0thing? Ohanian) will be testifying. We will also spotlight community initiatives like meetups to visit Congressional offices, campaigns to contact companies supporting PIPA/SOPA, and other tactics.

The actual shut down of Reddit will happen for 12 hours on January 18, between 8 am and 8 pm Eastern time. It will certainly affect a lot of people. A few days ago, Reddit announced that in December 2011 it had over 34 million unique visitors and over 2 billion page views.

Source

[-Im.z2ight-]

Well it wont affect my online time I usually view reddit late at night.

[Daniel]

Moderated Message:

Merged topics

[ShareShiz]

sorry didnt see there was already a thread...

anyways.. they plan on being down for 12 hours.

avg day they have 34 million visitors and 2 billion page views. that means they will be effecting about 17 million users... thats quite a bit of people

[kohkindachi]

-Developer Mojang has announced that Minecraft, too, will be "going dark" on the 18th January.

-Destructoid will also go offline on the 18th.

-Wikipedia may join Reddit in its blackout Jan. 18 to protest the Stop Online Privacy Act and Protect Internet Privacy Act.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wrote that he’s “all in favor of it,” but he needs to talk with his government affairs advisor and then take it to a fast thumbs-up/thumbs-down vote.

“We need to move forward quickly on a concrete,” plan, Wales wrote. “We don’t have the luxury of time that we usually have, in terms of negotiating with each other for weeks about what’s exactly the best possible thing to do.”