Wikipedia is Now Down, Google Censors Logo, Blackouts Begin Across Web

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As of 12 PM Eastern Standard Time, Wikipedia has taken its articles offline in protest of proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation, an eight-hour long Reddit outage is imminent, and Google has censored its logo to show support for opposition to the two disastrous bills currently being discussed by the legislative branch of government.

SOPA- as you probably know by now- stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, and it has recently run into major roadblocks in the House. However, PIPA- or the Protect Intellectual Property Act- still threatens to pass in the Senate, posing a genuine danger to the internet as we know it today. Reddit was the first to announce the blackout for Wednesday, the same day tech giants are heading to Washington to plead with lawmakers to consider first looking into the ramifications before letting the entertainment lobby drop an atomic bomb on the web.

Wikipedia followed suit with an announcement Monday, and many other, smaller sites have pledged to go offline to show solidarity for the protest and urge users to stand up against SOPA and PIPA and call their local Congressman and Senators. As of now, the following message displays when a Wikipedia page is opened:

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.