On Jan. 19, 2012, some people may have been surprised what they found, or in this case didn’t find, when they tried to use some of the worlds most popular search engines.

Websites like Google and Wikipedia were “blacked out” to protest against the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) bill that is going through Congress now and could eventually amount to questionable censorship of the internet.

“I think that the blackout is a really good idea because it (the blackout) is motivating people to sign the bill which is necessary to keep the government from shutting down any online piracy or any of the social network site that have been created,” senior Rick Clancy said.

SOPA would allow copyright holders the opportunity to shut down websites and force search engines to block dishonest sites and sites to be shut down if they post pirated content.

Supporters of the bill say that it is intended to restore the internet to what it was first intended to be and help prevent criminal action from taking over.

Protesters of the bill argue that those who support the bill don’t understand the internet and how it works.

“I think SOPA is not okay because with out Facebook, Twitter, and all that stuff, the Internet will not be cool, its not only taking away pirating its taking away everything and peoples freedom,” junior Katie Singleton said.

Google and Wikipedia both encourage users to learn more about the bill and to tell Congress not to censor the Internet.

While SOPA has both positives and negatives, if the bill is passed by Congress the internet will drastically change. Even though the bill has a chance of being passed, it is obvious that it will have to fight against some of the biggest websites on the internet.