The red hot SOPA drama (Stop Online Piracy Act) is creating pandemonium like you’ve never seen before. Its author has been involuntarily receiving ill-comments on the web, especially with the alleged infringement case slapped against him. Android users can even boycott this bill with a new app. Now, SOPA has attracted massive attention, or better yet agitation, from the online community. Reddit has already announced it will go dark for 12 hours to protest this bill’s being considered in the House of Representatives.

Wikipedia 24-hr Blackout

In an announcement today, multilingual encyclopedia and my oasis of answers, Wikipedia will join the January 18 Anti-SOPA virtual demonstration.

“This is going to be wow,” Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia tweets. “I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!”

In an online discussion, Wales stated his sentiments on the issue and what possible next steps they would take: “I’m all in favor of it, and I think it would be great if we could act quickly to coordinate with Reddit. I’d like to talk to our government affairs advisor to see if they agree on this as useful timing, but assuming that’s a greenlight, I think that matching what Reddit does (but in our own way of course) per the emerging consensus on how to do it, is a good idea.”

He added, “But that means we need to move forward quickly on a concrete proposal and vote – we don’t have the luxury of time that we usually have, in terms of negotiating with each other for weeks about what’s exactly the best possible thing to do. As I understand it, the Foundation is talking to people about how we can geolocate and guide people to their Congressperson, etc. Geoff will know about that. Our task is to decide to do it with a thumbs up / thumbs down vote.”

Boing Boing Joins The Rally

Magazine turned group blogging site, Boing Boing is one with Reddit, Wikipedia and other websites in rejecting SOPA. A statement on its site reads:

“If we failed to take this precaution, our finances could be frozen, our ad broker forced to pull ads from our site, and depending on which version of the bill goes to the vote, our domains confiscated, and, because our server is in Canada, our IP address would be added to a US-wide blacklist that every ISP in the country would be required to censor.”

Why Are Facebook and Google Quiet?

The decision to blackout the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours will substantially wound the online sphere, but the influence will be more impacting if biggies like Facebook and Google join the crusade. However, these two have revenue and shareholders to consider. The opposite is true for Wikipedia, which is supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and millions of volunteers around the globe. The organization is fueled and run by advocacy and volunteerism. The official statement of Wikipedia regarding the anti-SOPA blackout can be read here.

SOPA Threatens Innovation

A possible avalanche of internet websites blackout could really send the message across the continents and not only within the United States. Furthermore, this scenario would be able to educate people of what SOPA is and how it could potentially annihilate the internet as we know it by giving the government and media companies control of it. This power will allow the said groups to go after and block websites and search engines that contain posts that have a link to protected content. But as ubiquitous as the word “love,” online content or protected content’s definition is still undetermined. This blurred dimension could easily create a chaotic lawsuit-trigger-happy-filing community. For Elmira Bayrasli of Forbes.com, SOPA is a clear impediment of American innovation.

Twitter Isn’t Joining Blackout

One of the most influential social networking sites in the world today is obviously not joining the worldwide protest against SOPA. In a response to activists call to partake in the blackout, Twitter CEO says:

“That’s just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.”

Now, this leave many wondering how Twitter will survive with such screening schemes listed in SOPA.

More than the issue of which companies are shutting down operations to dispute, SOPA is touching on technology holistically. It will not only affect the way people “socialize” in social networks, and how news will be “tweeted.”  This law could scare creative minds to take risks and innovate in fear of being slapped with an infringement case. Piracy is awfully wrong, no question to that. However, such a debacle should be fought with a strong arsenal of laws. Is SOPA strong enough? You be the judge.