Several websites will be going offline this coming Wednesday (US Time) to protest against SOPA and PIPA. Sites like Reddit, Boing Boing, ICanHasCheezburger and many more have announced that their site will be taking part in the protest.

The latest site to take part in the protest is Wikipedia. Wikipedia announced today that the English language Wikipedia site will be unavailable for for 24 hours beginning midnight (EST) on 18 January 2012.

That means Wikipedia will be unavailable from 1pm 18 January to 1pm 19 January Singapore time.

This blackout is expected to affect millions of people worldwide. I think most people can live 1 day without Reddit discussion or cute kitten pictures. But Wikipedia is a very important resource on the internet. Unable to access it for 24 hour is going to be very disruptive to many people worldwide.

But I respect Wikipedia’s decision to take part in the protest. Right now, only the social media and Tech savvy people knows about SOPA and PIPA. This move can bring awareness to the general public. Perhaps this is a bitter medicine that we all need to take for the future of internet.

If Wikipedia is an important part of your work/study/life, you might want to download Wikipedia and access it offline during the blackout. Alternatively, you can also use Google Cache.

Update: If you need to access Wikipedia during the blackout, try using the mobile site. http://en.m.wikipedia.org

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