[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA

[Jay Walsh]

As far as we know, it's 0500 UTC

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 <jwalsh at wikimedia.org> 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.
> > _______________________________________________
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> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
> --
> Peace, love & metadata
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-- 
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw