The next time I see Jimmy Wales’s curious egg head staring down at me from a Wikipedia page, pleading me to donate to the cause with the doleful eyes of a basset hound eyeing a passing pork chop, I’ll think of the day he argued for the encyclopaedia to go dark. 

Wikipedia is a glorious and gloriously flawed global endeavour. The seed began with Wales and friends but it exists as it does now thanks to the funds and attention of a vast army of web users from around the world. It is not an American entity, it is a truly international resource but on Wednesday, it will go dark to protest SOPA. 

SOPA is a terrible idea. It’s bad for the whole online world as much as it would be detrimental to innovation and enterprise in America. That’s the nature of these things. The effects would reach us all wherever we lay our routers. But Wikipedia isn’t the place for this kind of political stunt. Going dark undermines a fundamental principle. 

If Wikipedia is used to make such a major political stand, it throws away any pretence of neutrality. Of course there are constant running battles between vested interests on the site and the ever present threat of PR people like the ever-reprehensible Bell Pottinger poking around but even a notional idea of independence is preserving. 

Wikipedia is not meant to be a fiefdom for Jimmy Wales which is why there was vote to determine whether the Wikipedia Blackout went ahead. But Wales was pointedly on the side of the switch off.

Wales might think it’s funny to make cracks about school kids needing to finish up their homework before the switch is flipped and the site disappears for a day, he’s really making a joke of the whole project. 

Twitter’s Dick Costello was right to dismiss calls for Twitter to follow suit, saying “closing a global business in reaction to a single issue of national politics is foolish.” 

So when you’re greeted by Jimmy Wales’s forehead looming down on you from the Banner Of Constant Pleading, hop over the pages on partisanship and shortsightedness as a reminder of the day when Wikipedia went away.

The Wikipedia Blackout will achieve nothing more than proving to naysayers that Wikipedia exists according to the whims of a select few. The principle of making the world’s information freely accessible should be Wikipedia’s goal above all others. 

Many commentators and observers agree with the line that SOPA fundamentally threatens Wikipedia’s existence but there are numerous other issues it could take a hardline on.

When will Wikipedia go dark for world peace? Or to protest against genocide or land mines or the threat of global warming?

Give up neutrality on one issue and you’re forfeiting it on others too. Wikipedia is about a multitude of voices and succumbing to a single issue damages that principle.