Wales’ Wikipedia was not the only site that has decided to oppose the proposed legislation. Joining them on “Black Wednesday” were the user-generated recommendation website Reddit, the news site Boing Boing and the Cheezburger Network. Google, however, made the decision not to shut down for the day. Instead, the search-engine giant made its own position clear by highlighting the issue on its homepage. Google and Wikipedia (the fifth most popular website in the world) are among the most powerful of the digital companies that are set to challenge the traditional media, music and film industries.

Facebook, Twitter and Zynga also joined the opposition, placing full-page ads in several prominent newspapers stating, “We stand together to protect innovation.” Meanwhile, YouTube, eBay, Flickr and Craigslist played their part by signing a letter aimed at expressing the concerns shared by most in Silicon Valley. The digital world remains adamant that there are suitable means of shutting down rogue websites without the need for global censorship of the web.

Nonetheless, the majority of the global big hitters were reluctant to go as far as Wikipedia in instigating a blackout. Wikipedia’s actions appeared to be undermined as the chief executive of Twitter, Dick Costolo, spoke out, claiming that it was unnecessary to shut down a worldwide business in reaction to the proposed legislation. However, Costolo was later to deny that he was making a statement about Wikipedia, claiming instead that he was simply referring to Twitter’s unwillingness to stage a blackout themselves.

Meanwhile, Wales pointed to the vote that was held among the Wikipedia community that resulted in 591 out of the 1070 voters opting for a blackout. In addition, while the original intention was to restrict the blackout to the US, the community eventually decided to go global. Wales cited the case of Richard O’Dwyer, a British student currently awaiting extradition to the US, where he will face accusations of running a pirate TV and film website, as proof that the legislation will have a global effect.

Wikipedia’s blackout decision has certainly had its desired effect, bringing the issue to the attention of millions of users of high speed internet services worldwide. As the UK begins to take its own measures to combat the piracy problem, having introduced its own Digital Economy Act and traditional media heavyweights such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation continue to fight for SOPA, it remains to be seen whether digital media will be truly changed by such new laws.