European Commission digital chief backs anti-SOPA protests

European digital chief Neelie Kroes has added her voice to protests against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US, as the backlash against the proposed legislation continues.

Writing on her Twitter profile, Kroes, the European Commission's vice president for the Digital Agenda, wrote that the law would threaten the basic foundation of the success of the web.

Glad tide is turning on #SOPA: don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net.

— Neelie Kroes (@NeelieKroesEU) January 20, 2012

"Speeding is illegal too: but you don't put speed bumps on the motorway," she added.

Kroes has previously criticised attempts by governments across the European Union to stop online piracy as a waste of money. She added that they have also turned consumers against copyright protection.

"We need to keep on fighting against piracy, but legal enforceability is becoming increasingly difficult. The millions of dollars invested trying to enforce copyright have not stemmed piracy," she said last November.

The criticism around SOPA took off on Wednesday after Wikipedia blocked access to its site for 24 hours in order to draw web users' attention to the bill, while Google also blacked out its logo in the US.

The inventor of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, told V3 that he was frustrated by the proposed laws, claiming they threaten the core values of the web and should be stopped.