Wikipedia blackout over; netizens relieved

After shutting down the English version of the community-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia for 24 hours on Wednesday to gain support against the proposed US anti-piracy legislation, the site on Thursday said that they will continue their fight against the lawmaking.

In a message posted on the site on Thursday, Wikipedia thanked the net users and said: "Thank you.The Wikipedia blackout is over - and you have spoken."

The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that operates Wikipedia decided to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States - the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate.

The organization said if the proposed legislation are passed then it will ´harm the free and open Internet´ and bring about new ´tools for censorship´ of international websites inside the United States.

According to Wikipedia, more than 162 million people saw the message- ´if you could imagine a world without free knowledge´- that was posted in their homepage on Wednesday.

"You shut down Congress's switchboards. You melted their servers. From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.For us, this is not about money. It's about knowledge. As a community of authors, editors, photographers, and programmers, we invite everyone to share and build upon our work," Wikipedia said in their message.

"SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What's happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine, and as Wikipedia went dark, you´ve directed your energy to protecting it," the message stated.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration in the US House of Representatives targets to reduce the online sales of pirated US products abroad.

Over 1800 Wikipedians discussed on the proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA and came out with the decision to blackout the site for 24 hours.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales reportedly criticised the proposed legislation and said that it would endanger the future of internet.

"Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Wales.

"This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world," he added.

Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites in the world and millions of users access it every day.

Internet giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter and eBay had reportedly expressed their discontents over the proposed legislation.