Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia speaks during the opening session at the London Cyberspace Conference on November 01, 2011 in London, England
Wikipedia founder: SOPA bad for Internet
02:56 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

Wikipedia plans to shut its site down on Wednesday

The act is a protest against anti-piracy bills before U.S. Congress

Wikipedia: The proposed laws would make it difficult for the site to operate

CNN talks with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales about the digital protest

CNN  — 

Go to Wikipedia at midnight, and you won’t find any of the usual encyclopedia articles.

Instead, you’ll be greeted with a message about anti-piracy bills that are topics of heated debate in the U.S. Congress – stirring opposition from tech companies in Silicon Valley and support from media companies in Hollywood.

Wikipedia, one of the highest-traffic sites on the Internet, will shut down for 24 hours in protest of these laws, which the website says would make it very difficult – maybe impossible – for its nonprofit encyclopedia to continue to operate.

The blackout starts at 12 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

For more on the bills, see CNNMoney’s story, “SOPA explained.”