Quiz: "blackout" or "blacklist"?

The correct answer is:blackout

Wikipedia is taking part in the anti-SOPA web blackout.

If you are involved in a web blackout, you intentionally remove the content of your website from the internet for a certain amount of time. A blackout also refers to the period of time when there is no electricity and also to the time during a war when all lights are turned off at night so that the enemy cannot see the town or city. A media blackout takes place when journalists are banned from reporting news about something. If a person suffers a blackout, they suddenly lose consciousness, usually for only a few minutes.

blackout = (Strom-)Ausfall, Verdunkelung, Nachrichtensperre, Ohnmachtsanfall

Wikipedia has taken its English-language site offline today to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), which are being debated by Congress in the US. Together with many other internet firms, Wikipedia fears that these acts will threaten free speech and that they will also hold website owners responsible for illegal links to downloaded music and films.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, told the BBC: "Proponents of SOPA have characterized the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy. But that's not really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."

If you blacklist a person or a company you do not approve of, you keep a record of their actions to try to stop them progressing in some way.

blacklist sb. =  jmdn. auf die schwarze Liste setzen

"I heard they blacklisted Mark. He'll have problems finding another job in this industry."