Yesterday Wikipedia took its English-language site offline as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US. I wonder how many people were incovenienced by this…..not that I rely solely on Wikipedia for facts and background info you must understand, but it is the first source that most people turn to. Actually, 400m people a month all over the world use the site as ‘go-to’ source of info…so I am not the only one!

The site carried a banner stating ‘Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge’.  Once I had got over the unnecessary use of capital letters for every word, I did actually start to think about a world without easy access to everyday information. I mean, I use the internet for everything, from finding out what my friends are doing on Twitter or to how to bake a cake (in the run-up to the Berkeley PR bake-off), to understanding the latest technology trends.  Without it I would be stuck.

But it is the reason behind Wikipedia’s decision to shut down for 24 hours that intrigues me. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation that in Wikipedia’s view would ‘fatally damage the free and open Internet’. But the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) protects against online piracy…so surely that is a good thing?!

I understand that the Internet should be an open platform for free speech but surely during these tough economic times the threat of 2.2 million jobs being at risk if the legislation is not imposed might make someone think twice about aggressively opposing it.  

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the subject…I would be interested to hear.

Melanie Johnson