Wikipedia back online after blackout protest

Jan 19, 2012, 9:55 GMT

Berlin - Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia was Thursday back online after shutting down its English-language website as part of a 24-hour protest at proposed anti-piracy legislation in the United States.

'The Wikipedia blackout is over and the public has spoken,' Wikipedia Foundation website quoted the foundation's executive director, Sue Gardner, as saying.

'One hundred sixty-two million of you saw our blackout page asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no,' Gardner said.

'You shut down the congressional switchboards, and you melted their servers,' she continued.

The unprecedented move came in reaction to two bills making their way through the US Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Critics of the legislation maintain that the measures would limit free speech and give content owners draconian powers to shut down websites implicated in piracy, even if they merely provide links to copyrighted content.

Other websites such as Google joined the Wikipedia protest without going offline. Wikipedia pledged to continue its protest campaign.

Support for the legislation appeared to be wavering in US Congress, with many legislators announcing on Twitter and Facebook that they would not support it.