Internet Blackout

A day without Wikipedia, not quite a day

Hyderabad: Wednesday morning, the city (the world too) woke up to a day without Wikipedia. So whatever questions one had, they had to be shelved for a day because - the English version of Wikipedia went offline for 24 hours in protest against the provisions of the proposed US anti-piracy laws (Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA as well as the Protect IP Act, or PIPA).

Groaned a helpless Abhishek Ponia, a regular Wikipedian, "Even though Wikipedia was on just a 24-hour blackout, I felt totally handicapped. I had to get hold of some important information which would be very easy if the blackout wasn't going on. And after a lot of struggle, I eventually gave up. That's why the blackout was very frustrating."

Echoing his views Vaijayanthi Kari, a student, opined, "I would describe such a scenario as scary because the amount of dependency that we have on a source like Wikipedia is immense and in the hour of need, if it is not available or accessible, things go for a toss."

While a visit to the English version of Wikipedia screen showed a gloomy black screen with words "Imagine a world without free knowledge," there were different ways to access the website. And a lot of people from the city did end up accessing Wikipedia....more    

All that happened on Internet Blackout Day

New Delhi: January 18 - Internet Blackout Day - is a date that will live in ignorance, as the world's largest encyclopaedia Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of the English version of the website. Wikipedia joined other big and small websites in a protest against pending US legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. Wikipedia and other proponents of a free Internet believe that...  

How to access Wikipedia on Internet Blackout day

New Delhi: Most of us rely, heavily, on Wikipedia to get information on almost any topic, theme or subject. But in a protest against the proposed US anti-piracy legislation, Wikipedia has blacked itself out for 24 hours starting 10:30 AM (IST) on January 18. As a result, people are no longer able to access the content of English version of the site, and therefore facing an information blackout. But there...  

Internet blackout fails to enlist big sites

San Francisco: A blackout scheduled for Wednesday to protest against proposed legislation on online piracy has failed to get the support of the biggest Internet players. Despite calls for the participation of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other big names, the biggest participants are the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the social-news website Reddit. The situation shows that, while technology companies are concerned about the legislation, the House's Stop Online...