"Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday," Wales said on his Twitter page.
Wales said that visitors to the Wikipedia's English website will see a message telling them that the website has been shut for 24 hours to protest the anti-piracy laws called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA).
When Wikipedia shuts down, it will join tens of other websites that will shut down on Wednesday as part of their protest against SOPA. These include Reddit, a website housing an influential web community that curates news, Cheezburger network, a collection of websites that host immensely popular LOLcat memes, BoingBoing, a popular blog, Craiglist, Mozilla, Minecraft and several other websites related to video games. There are reports that Google and Facebook may join the blackout.
