Wales is currently discussing a 'strike' which would black out Wikipedia in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act in America - a bill that critics allege would penalise sites such as Wikipedia where users are free to publish what they want
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has threatened a 'strike' where the entire English-language site would be turned off as a protest against an anti-piracy bill currently under discussion in the U.S.
The site is used by an estimated 365 million readers worldwide, and is ranked sixth overall on earth.
Writing on his private Wikipedia blog, Wales said, 'A global strike of at least the English Wikipedia would put the maximum pressure on the US government.
'At the same time, it's of course a very very big deal to do something like this, it is unprecedented for English Wikipedia.'
The threatened 'strike' - which would black out Wikipedia in English and possibly other languages - is in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently before the House Judiciary Committee.
Opponents of the bill - designed to protect copyright online - allege that it takes a 'guilty until proven innocent approach'.
Sites such as Wikipedia, where content can be published by any user, are alleged to be at risk.
The activist group Electronic Frontier Foundation said, 'At a minimum, this means that any service that hosts user generated content is going to be under enormous pressure to actively monitor and filter that content.'
'That’s a huge burden, and worse for services that are just getting started – the YouTubes of tomorrow that are generating jobs today.'
At present, Mr Wales's proposed 'strike' has been put up for discussion on the site. There are hundreds of comments from site insiders, most of which 'Firmly Support' the action.
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