Italian Wikipedia shuts down due to proposed EU copyright law

In protest of proposed European Union (EU) copyright laws, the Italian version of Wikipedia will remain non-operational for two days.

According to Deutsche Welle, the proposed law will enforce new regulations for content and direct IT companies to regulate what users upload.

A message posted on the website reads, "Freedom of internet at risk."

Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who is also the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), said that the protest had the full support of the government.

"We welcomed the support of the government," a spokesperson for the Wikipedia Italia, Maurizio Codogno told Italian news agency ANSA.

He also hoped that the M5S members in the European Parliament would also follow Di Maio's suite when the directive goes to a vote on July 5.

Despite the EU deciding to exclude Wikipedia from being affected, as it was an encyclopedia, Wikipedia has held protests in solidarity with those that will be affected.

Codogno said that Wikipedia's actions were not to save itself, but to fight for the free web, and to "preserve the Web as a space that is open to less visible realities."

As many as 70 computer scientists, including the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, 169 academics and 145 human rights, press freedom, and scientific research organisations join hands with Wikipedia in opposition of the proposed law.