Reddit Going Offline to Protest SOPA

Reddit is doing more than just pressuring Paul Ryan and GoDaddy over the Stop Online Piracy Act: The social media forum is taking itself offline in protest. One week from today, visitors to Reddit.com will only see a message about SOPA and its threats to Internet freedom, as well as live video of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and others from the tech world testifying before Congress.

Rep. Darrell Issa, who opposes SOPA, has assigned his House Oversight Committee to investigate some of the techniques recommended by the legislation—including DNS and search engine blockades, which are currently used in Iran and China. Reddit is the first site to announce a blackout, but Wikipedia, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Amazon are also considering such a protest, the Raw Story reports. (More Stop Online Piracy Act stories.)