You're reading: Russian Wikipedia shuts down site to protest law

MOSCOW — Wikipedia has shut down its Russian-language site for 24 hours to protest a law that would give the government sweeping powers to blacklist certain sites.

Lawmakers say that the bill, which is to
be reviewed in parliament today, is designed to protect the well-being
of children. It enables the government to block sites that show child
pornography, promote teen suicide, or spread information about drugs.

But
both Internet users and human rights activists have loudly protested
the law. The Presidential Council of Human Rights said that the law
provides too wide a scope for the government to “subjectively” select
which sites to blacklist.

The Wikipedia protest comes after a
similar shutdown of the English-language site in January to protest the
anti-pirating Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. Congress.