Wikipedia can temporarily close

The English-speaking website for day will be submerged in darkness. It is the unprecedented step strengthening influence of the growing mass of criticism to legislators of the USA. Wikipedia is considered one of the most popular websites of the Internet, the number of visitors of a resource – several million a day. "Adoption of this law will do harm to the free and open Internet, will create new instruments of censorship of the international Internet resources in the United States", - said the consolidation Wikimedia Foundation.

The legal acts which are under consideration in the U.S. Senate - SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), are developed for protection against sale abroad of piracy products which authorship belongs to citizens or the companies of the USA. Representatives musical and the film industries whose products are often sold illegally are among supporters of these regulations. They speak about need to legislatively protect intellectual property and jobs.

Critics answer that these laws can do much harm the industries of high technologies and restrain freedom of speech. They are afraid that similar measures can weaken cyber defense of the companies and prevent access rights to domains. The most contentious clause is available in the bill of the White House in which management of "black list" of the websites which, allegedly extend pirated content can be allowed to the federal authorities. In essence thus it is possible to limit access to some zones of the Internet for all users to the USA. But, apparently, leaders of the Congress refused this provision.

The technology companies among which Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, AOL and some other, opposed such approach and said that it threatens existence of the industry in general. Several Internet communities, such as Reddit, Boing Boing and others also announced plans of shutdown in protest.

Obama's administration also expressed concern about this project and told that it will work on this law together with the Congress for assistance in fight against piracy and counterfeit sale, at the same time protecting freedom of speech, personal privacy, security and innovations on the Internet.

The decision of community Wikipedia on shutdown of the website draws attention of huge audience to the brought-up question. The resource user group discussed more than a month - whether it should react to the legislation. According to the message of Fund, within several last days more than 1800 volunteers working on the website as well as other users, considered several forms of an online protest, including banners and global shutdown of the website. As a result the group supported the decision on shutdown of the English-language version of the website.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, on Monday announced the first the made decision on Twitter and told that these laws pose a threat for the free, open and safe Internet. "All this is only badly designed bedlam", - Wales told Associated Press.

Wikipedia also asks the American readers to contact Congressmen concerning the bill in the period of a website stop. The personal address to readers was heard in network and from Wales. Access to Wikipedia will be closed from midnight of Tuesday to East Standard Time (5:00 am GMT) till midnight of Wednesday (from 9 a.m. on January 18 till 9 a.m. on January 19, on Moscow time).

For the first time the English-language version of Wikipedia will be disconnected. The Italian website was for a while disconnected in protest at the bill of creation of Internet censorship which is put forward by Berlusconi's government once. The bill of listenings did not promote further. Jay Walsh, the representative of Wikimedia Foundation considers that Wikipedia should be open.