In solidarity with Wikipedia, reddit, Google and many other websites, the EBC website was blacked out on January 18, 2012 from approximately 6:00am through 6:00pm MST (1300-0100 UTC). EBC otherwise operated normally during that time.

The action was in protest of two proposed bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are working their way through Congress in the United States. They are aimed at shutting down websites facilitating Copyright and Trademark infringement, yet fall outside US jurisdiction. The bills are controversial because it is believed that they will erode the DNS system, which resolves human-readable domain names into IP addresses. Read why Canadians should be concerned about these bills.