Reddit has announced support for movements against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect-IP Act (PIPA) with a promise to rest for one day its website within January.
The social news website is experiencing lots of traffic on discussions regarding the SOPA and PIPA legislations currently proposed in the US Congress, but Reddit founders and heads remain firm to oppose the bills’ passage as U.S. laws.
Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder and technology investor, delivered an emotionally driven tweet, saying, “They said ‘bring in the nerds,’ so I’m headed to DC to testify about SOPA/PIPA.”
While Ohanian is set to appear before a U.S. Congress hearing on January 18, Reddit posted a follow-up post on its website.
“We’ve seen some amazing activism organized by redditors at /r/sopa and across the reddit community at large,” the post said. “You have made a difference in this fight; and as we near the next stage, and after much thought, talking with experts, and hearing the overwhelming voices from the reddit community, we have decided that we will be blacking out reddit on January 18th from 8am-8pm EST (1300-0100 UTC).”
Image: Reddit
To clarify, the website will not shutter operations but only show on its homepage a message on what Internet citizens can do to oppose SOPA.
“We’re as addicted to reddit as the rest of you. Many of you stand with us against PIPA/SOPA, but we know support for a blackout isn’t unanimous. We’re not taking this action 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,” it added. “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.”
