Reddit to Black Out During SOPA Hearings in Protest Next Week

In protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, a nefarious act that tries to censor the Internet without actually showing much understanding of said Internet in the first place, reddit, one of the most popular social news aggregation currently on the very same Internet, will black itself out next week. Redditors may not know what to do with themselves, but on January 18, a week from today, from 8 AM to 8 PM EST, reddit will be blacked out in protest.

Instead of the normal reddit feed, the site will display a “simple message” regarding how the SOPA and PIPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit itself.

The message that will be displayed on reddit instead of the usual pictures of animals and posts about reddit will also include links to resources if you want to brush up on why SOPA and PIPA are bad news, and also suggested ways one such as yourself could take action. On top of that, reddit will also be featuring a live stream of the hearing, in which reddit cofounder Alexis “kn0thing” Ohanian will be testifying.

The post on the reddit blog also makes mention that they’re aware not everyone is in support of a reddit blackout, and stresses that reddit isn’t making this decision lightly:

We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it. Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community.

Also, the blackout is only for 12 hours, so redditors should be able to find something else to do during that time, like watch the live stream of the hearing and become infuriated, for example.

(via reddit blog)

Relevant to your interests

• The ESA is still supporting SOPA
• Public pressure made GoDaddy withdraw SOPA support
• Jimmy Wales is considering blacking out Wikipedia in protest of SOPA as well