What happened
On January 18, 2012, Reddit went dark for 12 hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Reddit was the first major site to announce such an "internet blackout," and its move helped catalyze a coordinated day of action joined by Wikipedia, which blacked out its English-language site, along with thousands of other websites. During the downtime, Reddit replaced its content with an explanation of how the bills threatened user-generated platforms and streamed a live congressional hearing at which co-founder Alexis Ohanian testified against the legislation.
The protest had a sweeping effect. Wikipedia recorded more than 17.5 million pageviews to its blackout page, a Google-promoted petition gathered over 4.5 million signatures, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that more than a million emails were sent to members of Congress. Within days, lawmakers withdrew support and shelved both bills. The blackout became a landmark demonstration of internet-driven political mobilization and cemented Reddit's identity as a platform willing to organize collective action on digital-rights issues.