THE GUARDIAN: Several Republican lawmakers dropped their support of the controversial bill on Wednesday as Wikipedia, Google and Reddit spearhead a massive online protest
Political support for controversial online anti-piracy legislation began crumbling on Wednesday as leading websites staged an unprecedented one-day protest against the measures.
Wikipedia, the sixth most-visited website on the planet, pulled its English site offline Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), which is currently pasing though the House of Representatives, and the Protect IP Act (Pipa), a similar bill under debate in the Senate.
Other tech giants, including popular news sharing site Reddit, also pulled the plug while Google censored its name.
The protest gained fresh momentum Wednesday when senator Marco Rubio of Florida withdrew his support for Pipa. Rubio is a rising Republican star who is seen as a possible vice president pick this year and a future presidential candidate. » | Dominic Rushe and Ryan Devereaux | Wednesday, January 18, 2012
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