Wikipedia founder threatens to ‘turn off’ site over US anti-piracy bill

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Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has threatened to shut down the entire English-language site in protest against new US laws designed to clamp down on online piracy.

“A global strike of at least the English Wikipedia would put the maximum pressure on the US government,” Wales wrote on his private Wikipedia blog.

“At the same time, it's of course a very very big deal to do something like this, it is unprecedented for English Wikipedia,” he added.

The threatened ‘strike’ is in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently before the House Judiciary Committee, The Daily Mail reports.

Opponents of the bill, designed to protect copyright online, allege that it takes a ‘guilty until proven innocent approach’.

Sites such as Wikipedia, where content can be published by any user, are alleged to be at risk.

At present, Wales's proposed ‘strike’ has been put up for discussion on the site. There are hundreds of comments from site insiders, most of which ‘Firmly Support’ the action.