Sopa Blackout: Wikipedia Goes Offline, Why Not Twitter?

As a protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect IP Act (Pipa) in the US, Wikipedia has taken its English-language site offline for 24 hours.

But Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo said his micro-blogging site would not join in the protest. Costolo said that he had planned something else in protest.

In a message on Twitter, Costolo said: “That's just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.

Wikipedia has been joined by Reddit and Mozilla in the protest. But Costolo insisted: Not shutting down a service doesn't equal not taking the proper stance on an issue. We've been very clear about our stance.

Twitter, as an international site, is used by millions of people across the world and many non-US users might not care about the protest as they are unaffected by the US legislation. That is why Wikipedia has only shut down its English-language site.

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales said on Twitter: “Rumours of the death of Sopa may be premature. But Pipa is still going strong.

The best action for Twitter might be to let us continue to use the service to organise our protests.”