The company is the latest tech giant to say it'll show off its opposition on Wednesday. Google joins SOPA protest

Google, one of the Web’s most influential forces, is joining the protest against the divisive anti-piracy bills in Congress.

On Wednesday, Google will post a link on the company’s iconic homepage that will explain its opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, two pieces of legislation that the Internet industry says will halt innovation and undermine free expression.


"Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page."

With that, Google joins the ranks of other well-known Web brands including Reddit and Wikipedia that plan to go dark Wednesday to protest the bills. Google’s protest, while less dramatic than a site blackout, shows the concerted effort is gaining momentum across the Internet ecosystem.

Mozilla, the maker of the popular Internet browser Firefox, is also jumping into the fray, announcing it, too, will stage a “virtual protest.” The bills, Mozilla says, create opportunity for abuse and damages “online capabilities for all of us.”

“Mozilla stands with this opposition and we hope the blackout of our U.S. sites will educate people about this important issue,” Mozilla said in a statement.

Scribd, a social publishing site, will post a pop-up window with a call to action featuring a petition.

“The future of the Internet cannot be beholden to ill-conceived legislation,” said Scribd co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jared Friedman. “We believe that global intellectual property rights and a free and open Internet can coexist.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:04 p.m. on January 17, 2012.