Wikipedia censorship

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The map shows countries in which Wikipedia has been threatened by blocking or is being blocked.

The censorship of Wikipedia took and takes place in different countries. Among these countries are the People's Republic of China , France , Iran , Pakistan , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Syria , Thailand , Turkey , Tunisia , Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom . In some cases, there is widespread censorship on the Internet , which then also affects Wikipedia content. In other cases, they are targeted measures that prevent access to certain content that is considered offensive. Access to Wikipedia is currently (as of January 2019) blocked in the People's Republic of China, since 2015.

By country

People's Republic of China

The Chinese language Wikipedia was launched in May 2001. At the beginning of 2004, Wikipedia still received positive reports in the Chinese state press. However, Wikipedia was blocked on June 3, 2004 on the 15th anniversary of the Tian'anmen massacre in 1989. Offers were made to make the site accessible again after self-censorship was carried out, but these were rejected by the Chinese Wikipedia community. An article in the International Herald Tribune compares the Chinese with the English Wikipedia and finds that the articles about Mao Zedong and Taiwan were "watered down and cleansed" of political controversy. On June 22, 2004, access to Wikipedia was restored without explanation. In September, Wikipedia was blocked again for a period of four days without giving any reasons. Again, Wikipedia was blocked in October 2005. Users Shi Zhao and Cui Wei wrote a letter to the authorities trying to lift the blockade. Excerpts from the letter read as follows: “By blocking Wikipedia, we are losing the chance to present China's voice in the world. We allow evil cults to present the Taiwanese independence movements and others (...) with a distorted picture of China. "

In October 2006, The New York Times reported that the English version of Wikipedia was once again available in the People's Republic of China, but the Chinese language version was still blocked. New media researcher Andrew Lih blogged that he was unable to access the English article on the 1989 Tian'anmen massacre. Lih also said there was no such thing as a monolithic “Great Firewall of China”. Depending on which user is logged in via which Internet provider in which region, such as China Netcom in Beijing , China Telecom in Shanghai or various providers in Anhui - the Chinese Wikipedia was only blocked in Anhui . The advisory organization Reporters Without Borders praised Wikipedia's chairperson for not engaging in self-censorship.

On November 10, 2006, Lih reported that the Chinese Wikipedia was now fully accessible again. Lih confirmed the assumption a few days later and based the observation on the number of new user accounts on the Chinese Wikipedia that were created in the days. Before the site was accessible again, 300 to 400 new user accounts were created each day. In the four days after the end of the blockade, the number tripled to over 1,200 user accounts per day, making the Chinese Wikipedia the second fastest growing language version after English. In addition, 75% more articles were created by the end of the week on November 13th compared to the previous week. This week was the one when the Chinese version passed the 100,000 item mark. Lih had predicted that this mark would be exceeded quickly, but also that experienced users would have to spend a great deal of time teaching new users the basic rules and guidelines of Wikipedia.

On November 16, the news organization Reuters reported that it had access to the main page of Wikipedia, but not sensitive topics such as the protests of June 4, 1989 . However, it was reported that both the English and Chinese versions were blocked again on November 17th. On June 15, 2007, access to non-political articles in the English Wikipedia was restored. On September 6, 2007, IDG News reported that the English Wikipedia was blocked again. On April 2, 2008 it was reported that the blockade had been lifted from the English and Chinese Wikipedia. That was also confirmed by the BBC . At the same time, foreign journalists arrived in Beijing to cover the 2008 Summer Olympics . The International Olympic Committee had called for freedom of the press during the Games. In September 2008, Jimmy Wales met with Vice Director of the Chinese State Council Information Bureau, Cai Mingzhao. Although no agreements followed, Wales believed the channel of communication between the Wikipedia community and the Chinese government was reopened. The blockade of Wikipedia not only reduced the number of users, but also resulted in an average decrease in user posts by 42.8%, according to a 2011 report by the American Economic Review . As of 2012, the Chinese and English Wikipedia were in of the People's Republic of China, except for political articles. If someone tried to access a "sensitive" article with a Chinese IP address (even if one was only looking for a term), the IP was prevented from accessing Wikipedia for a few minutes to an hour.

Chinese government agencies blocked access to the secure ( HTTPS ) version of the site on May 31, 2013, although the unsecure ( HTTP ) version of the site was still accessible. The unsafe version is susceptible to keyword filtering, which can block individual articles. Greatfire called on Wikipedia and its users to bypass the block by gaining HTTPS access through Wikipedia's IP addresses. In 2013, after Jimmy Wales said Wikipedia would not tolerate “five seconds” of censorship, Shen Yi, Internet researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, said, “While Wikipedia always goes tough with the Chinese government, it doesn't necessarily show the same thing Strength when the US government or the European court system makes a request to change content, delete articles or release information.

Since May 19, 2015, all attempts to access the HTTP version are automatically forwarded to the HTTPS addresses, so data encryption is mandatory for all users. Because of this, it is no longer possible for those in charge of the Chinese government to see which page a user is trying to access or is currently viewing. This made it impossible to specifically block articles (like Ai Weiwei or the Tian'anmen massacre ), as had been the case in previous years. As a result, the entire Chinese-language Wikipedia was blocked. On August 31, the main pages were accessible again for a few minutes.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said at the Leadership Energy Summit Asia 2015 in Kuala Lumpur on December 2, 2015 that he would fly to the People's Republic of China to convince the Chinese government to lift the censorship. Two days later, all language versions were blocked, this blockade lasted two days until December 6th. There were complaints about this blockade in local social networks, but many of them were deleted after a short time. Jimmy Wales met on 17 December at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen , Zhejiang Lu Wei, director of the Cyberspace Administration. Wales said there was no consensus, but they "met and got to know". After Lu Wei, Wales explained to him how Wikipedia and the Wikimedia network work globally and said he hoped to meet the Chinese cyberspace agency regularly. A reporter asked if he would be willing to suppress some information on Wikipedia in order to ensure stable access in the People's Republic of China, which Wales said no. But even Jimmy Wales' statements were rendered differently. He said that improvements in machine translation may no longer make it possible for government agencies to control the flow of information in the future. However, the official translation said that the improvements would make it easier for governments to analyze online communications.

France

In April 2013, the French General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) became aware of an article on the Pierre-sur-Haute military radio station . The news service tried to have the article deleted from French Wikipedia. The secret service forced the administrator of French Wikipedia Rémi Mathis to delete the article. Wikimedia asked DGSI which parts of the article were causing the problem, as the article mostly only reproduced information from a 2004 documentary on the television channel Télévision Loire 7. This is a local broadcaster and the documentary is freely accessible online. The DGSI did not answer the request and insisted on deleting the article. A statement from Wikimedia France dated April 6th read as follows:

“On April 4, 2013, the DGSI summoned a Wikipedia volunteer to the agency. The volunteer was one of the group of people who can delete pages. He was forced to delete the article in front of the officers, with threats that if he refused, he would be arrested and prosecuted; regardless of his attempts to explain how Wikipedia works. Under this pressure, he had no choice but to obey and warn other system administrators that if they undone the deletion, they would be treated the same way. The volunteer had absolutely no connection to the article in question, had not written its content and only found out about its existence on the premises of the DGSI. "

Because of the controversy, the article became the most widely read article on French Wikipedia, with more than 120,000 hits during the week of May 6/7. April 2013. It has also been translated into many other languages. The French newspaper 20 Minutes , Ars Technica and a post on “ Slashdot ” cited the incident as an example of the Streisand effect . The French interior ministry told Agence France-Presse that it would not comment on the incident.

According to a legal expert quoted in an AFP article on April 8th, the deletion of the article was "part of a preliminary investigation" carried out by the "anti-terrorist department of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office". The reason for the investigation was that the article in the French language version "reveals classified information on the chain of command for the launch of nuclear weapons."

Following the incident, Télévision Loire 7 reported that they expected the DGSI to ask them to delete the original 2004 documentary on which the Wikipedia article was based. However, this was filmed with the consent of the French military. The National Police Association demanded that the judiciary ask French internet providers to block access to the Wikipedia article. Reporters Without Borders criticized the DGSI's actions as setting poor precedent . The organization's spokesman told Le Point, “If an institution thinks that classified defense information has been unlawfully released, it has every option to have it recognized by the courts. Then it is up to the judge to decide how to balance freedom of the press and freedom of information against alleged military secrecy. ”The spokesman added that the article contained information from a documentary that had previously been filmed in cooperation with the French military. The site and the association behind Wikipedia, as well as those involved in the project, should not be held responsible.

Iran

In November 2013, scientists Collin Anderson and Nima Nazeri examined over 300,000 Persian Wikipedia articles and found that the Iranian government blocked 963 articles. The study was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the University's Center for Global Communication Studies . According to Anderson and Nazeri, the content of the blocked articles concerned "rivals of the government, religious minorities, criticism of the government, criticism of government employees and the police". Half of the articles blocked were biographies, including biographies of people allegedly imprisoned or killed by the government. Anderson noted that the Persian Wikipedia is a microcosm of the Iranian Internet and a good place to see what kind of content is banned, what keywords are blocked, and what filtering rules are applied in the rest of the web.

In 2015, the Persian language version of Wikipedia was switched to the HTTPS protocol, leaving the Iranian government with no choice but to either block it completely or not to block it at all. Iran has chosen the latter. Wikimedia Commons was banned in the first half of 2016, but the block has been lifted since then.

According to reports from Reporters Without Borders, the Iranian government has blocked access to the Kurdish Wikipedia for a long time.

Pakistan

On March 31, 2006, the entire Wikipedia.org domain was blocked for seven hours because of an article that contained information on cartoons of Mohammed . The English version of Wikipedia was blocked in Pakistan for several days in May 2010 because of the controversy over Malt-all-Mohammed-Day .

Russia

On April 5, 2013, the spokesman for the Federal Service for Supervision in the Field of Communication, Information Technology and Mass Communication (also known as Roskomnadzor ) declared that Wikipedia was listing the Russian-language Wikipedia because of the article “Smoking cannabis” ( Russian Курение каннабиса ) blacklisted.

On August 18, 2015, an article in the Russian-language Wikipedia about a type of cannabis ( Чарас (наркотическое вещество) ) was blacklisted by Roskomnadzor because it contained detailed instructions on how to make narcotics (after a court ruled months earlier ). On August 24, the article was added to the list of prohibited materials forwarded to Internet service providers in Russia. Through Wikipedia's use of HTTPS to enforce the article blocking instruction, the site was completely blocked on the night of August 25th as it was not possible to block a single article. The site has reportedly been temporarily suspended in some regions while the mobile version was still accessible. On the morning of August 25th, Roskomnadzor removed the article from the Prohibited Materials list because the Federal Drug Control Service had given assurances that the article would be amended to meet the terms of the court order. According to Wikimedia Russia, the article was quickly changed by Wikipedia writers so that the law would not be broken. 10–20% of Russian users had problems accessing Wikipedia around August 25th.

Saudi Arabia

On July 11, 2006, the Saudi government blocked access to Google and Wikipedia for politically and sexually sensitive content. Many articles in the English and Arabic Wikipedia are censored in Saudi Arabia.

Syria

Access to the Arabic Wikipedia was blocked between April 30, 2008 and February 13, 2009, while other language versions were still available.

Tunisia

The Wikimedia website was inaccessible in Tunisia between November 23 and 27, 2006.

Turkey

In the early morning hours of April 29, 2017, the NGO Turkey Blocks reported that it was no longer possible to access a language version of Wikipedia from Turkey. The official measure came after Turkish authorities asked Wikipedia to delete "content by authors linked to terrorism and content linking Turkey to terrorist groups". In their opinion, the authorities did not receive a satisfactory answer.

Before that, Turkey had only censored specific articles like “Kadın üreme organları” (vulva), “insan penisi” (human penis), “2015 Türkiye genel seçim anketleri” (2015 polls on the parliamentary elections in Turkey) “vajina” (vagina ) and "testis torbası" (scrotum). There was no court order for this censorship. One of the internet providers, TTNET, speculated that Wikipedia was offline. Katherine Maher said this was not true.

On December 26, 2019, a constitutional court in Turkey ruled that Wikipedia's blocking violates freedom of expression and must be lifted.

Great Britain

In December 2008, the non-governmental organization Internet Watch Foundation put the " Virgin Killer " item on its blacklist. The album cover was classified as child pornography and therefore illegal by the organization . The image was previously classified with the lowest level of legal risk as "erotic posturing without sexual acts". Because of the blacklist, the Cleanfeed System prevented ISPs from Great Britain from seeing the picture and thus prevented large parts of Great Britain from working on Wikipedia. Due to public complaints, the IMF reversed the decision three days later, confirming that it would not freeze any copies of the image hosted overseas in the future.

Uzbekistan

The entire Wikipedia was temporarily blocked twice in Uzbekistan in 2007 and 2008. The blocking of the Uzbek Wikipedia was reported internationally in February 2012. Internet users in Uzbekistan who tried to access the Uzbek language version were redirected to MSN . Other language versions were easily accessible.

The Uzbek Wikipedia has been available via the HTTPS protocol since October 2016.

Venezuela

According to information from netblocks.org , all language versions of Wikipedia are said to have been blocked in Venezuela on January 12, 2019.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Turkish authorities block access to Wikipedia: monitor . In: Arab News , April 29, 2017. 
  2. ↑ Philip Pan: Reference Tool on Web Finds, Fans, Censors . In: The Washington Post , February 20, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  3. ^ Brian Montopoli: Is Wikipedia China Really Wikipedia? , CBS News . November 30, 2006. Archived from the original on August 4, 2011. Retrieved on December 23, 2011. 
  4. ^ Alert: Authorities block access to online encyclopaedia . International Freedom of Expression Exchange . October 21, 2005. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  5. ^ Noam Cohen: Chinese Government Relaxes Its Total Ban on Wikipedia . In: The New York Times , October 16, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  6. ↑ China PARTIALLY unblocks Wikipedia . andrewlih.com blog. Archived from the original on December 1, 2006. Retrieved December 24, 2006.
  7. ↑ China 'unblocks' Wikipedia site , BBC News. November 16, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  8. ↑ Chinese Wikipedia now fully unblocked? . andrewlih.com blog. Archived from the original on June 24, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2006.
  9. ^ Chinese Wikipedia's Surge in Growth . andrewlih.com blog. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2006.
  10. ↑ Wikipedia unblocked in China after year-long ban . Retrieved December 24, 2006. 
  11. ↑ The Nanny changes her mind: Wikipedia blocked again . DANWEI. Retrieved December 24, 2006.
  12. ↑ English Wikipedia unblocked in China . Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  13. ^ Steven Schwankert: Wikipedia Blocked in China Again , IDG News via PCworld. September 6, 2007. Retrieved January 26, 2008. 
  14. ^ Sylvie Barak: China uncensors Wikipedia , The Inquirer. April 3, 2008. 
  15. ^ Cade Metz: Chinese net censors unblock BBC, Wikipedia . In: The Register . July 31, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Beijing unblocks BBC Chinese site," BBC, July 31, 2008
  17. ↑ Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales meets China's censors . Rconversation.blogs.com. October 1, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
  18. ↑ Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia , Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, Feng Zhu.
  19. ↑ Wikipedia founder caps off MSE Symposium . The Johns Hopkins News Letter. November 15, 2012. Archived from the original on February 25, 2013. Retrieved on November 23, 2012.
  20. ^ "Academics break the Great Firewall of China" , Tom Espiner, ZDNet, July 4, 2006.
  21. ^ Great firewall of china, about
  22. ^ McMillan, Graeme (4 June 2013) Chinese authorities apparently started blocking access to the site this past May 31 , Digital Trends .
  23. ↑ "维基 百科 ： 宁愿 放弃 中国 业务 网络 审查" 5 秒 都不 行 " ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (“ Wikipedia would rather give up business in China than tolerate '5 seconds of Internet Censorship' ”), Global Times, Aug 13, 2013.
  24. ^ Charlie Smith: We Had Our Arguments, But We Will Miss You Wikipedia . In: Huffington Post , June 18, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015. 
  25. ↑ China has blocked Wikipedia again . In: PixelsTech.net , December 5, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2015. 
  26. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160322142820/http://www.nanzao.com/sc/national/151b35d2ba62d9d/wei-ji-chuang-shi-ren-xiang-lu-wei-jie-shao -liao-yun-zuo-mo-shi-bu-zhi-wei-he-zai-nei-di-bei-jin
  27. ↑ 基金会 全 站 IP 被 墙 维基 百科 所有 语言 全面 阵亡 , China Digital Times. December 4, 2015. Accessed December 29, 2015. 
  28. ↑ 楊立 贇: 維基 百科 創辦 人稱 永不 以 審查 換 解禁 今 首 晤 網 信 辦 未達 共識 . In: Ming Pao . December 17, 2015. Accessed December 17, 2015.
  29. ↑ James T. Areddy: Anti-Wikipedian Translation At China's Internet Conference . In: WSJ . December 17, 2015. Accessed December 29, 2015.
  30. ↑ Kim Willsher: French secret service accused of censorship over Wikipedia page . In: The Guardian . April 7, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
  31. ↑ Torsten Kleinz: French secret service demands deletion of a Wikipedia article ( German ) In: Heise Online . Hot. April 6, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
  32. ↑ a b Guerric Poncet: Wikipédia et DCRI: la chaîne locale “s'attend” à être censurée (French) . In: Le Point , April 9, 2013. 
  33. ↑ La DCRI accusée d'avoir illégalement forcé la suppression d'un article de Wikipédia In: Le Monde . April 6, 2013 (French).
  34. ^ Megan Geuss: Wikipedia editor allegedly forced by French intelligence to delete “classified” entry . In: Arstechnica , April 6, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2013. 
  35. ^ Wikipedia article traffic statistics for 'Station hertzienne militaire de Pierre-sur-Haute' . In: stats.grok.se . Archived from the original on April 14, 2013.
  36. ↑ La DCRI accusée d'avoir fait supprimer and article on Wikipedia (French) . April 6, 2013. 
  37. ↑ Le retrait de l'article Wikipedia demandé dans le cadre d'une enquête préliminaire (French) . In: La Chaîne Info , April 8, 2013. Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved on April 9, 2013. 
  38. ↑ Guerric Poncet: Un syndicat de police évoque le filtrage de Wikipédia (French) . In: Le Point , April 10, 2013. 
  39. ↑ Guerric Poncet: RSF dénonce les 'maneuvers de la DCRI' contre Wikipédia (French) . In: Le Point , April 10, 2013. 
  40. ↑ Colin Anderson, Nima Nazeri: Citation Filtered: Iran's Censorship of Wikipedia . Center for Global Communication Studies (University of Pennsylvania). November 7, 2013.
  41. ^ How Iran Uses Wikipedia To Censor The Internet . November 12, 2013. 
  42. ^ Iran blocks access to Google, Wikipedia: Report . In: The Times of India . May 17, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  43. ↑ https://rsf.org/en/news/new-york-times-website-unblocked-youtube-still-inaccessible
  44. ↑ Websites blocked, PTA tells SC: Blasphemous material , Dawn. March 14, 2006. 
  45. ^ Pakistan Blocks Wikipedia . Blogcritics. March 31, 2006. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved on April 13, 2010.
  46. ^ Wikipedia Blocked in Pakistan for seven hours . Karachi Metblogs. March 31, 2006. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
  47. ^ Basit Ali: Youtube, Wikipedia, Flickr blocked in Pakistan after Facebook . May 20, 2010. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved in 2011.
  48. ↑ Pakistan blocks access to YouTube in internet crackdown , BBC News. May 20, 2010. Accessed in 2011. 
  49. ↑ Russia May Block Wikipedia Access Over Narcotics Article | RIA Novosti . May 6, 2013. 
  50. ↑ Russian media regulator confirms Wikipedia blacklisted , Russia Beyond The Headlines. April 5, 2013. 
  51. ^ Russians Selectively Blocking Internet . In: The New York Times , March 31, 2013. 
  52. ↑ Boren, Zachary Davies: Russia threatens to block Wikipedia over cannabis page . In: The Independent . August 21, 2015. Accessed August 21, 2015.
  53. ↑ Kremlin moves to ban Russian Wikipedia ( English ) In: Financial Times . Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  54. ↑ Российские провайдеры начали блокировку “Википедии” ( Russian ) In: РИА Новости . Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  55. ↑ Ъ - Роскомнадзор удалил статью "Википедии" из реестра запрещенных сайтов ( Russian ). Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  56. ↑ Спорную статью “Википедии” отредактировали сами пользователи ( Russian ). Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  57. ↑ https://www.arabnews.com/node/288030
  58. ↑ arabianews.org ( Memento of February 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  59. ^ Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Syrian youth break through internet blocks . June 3, 2008. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
  60. ^ Arabic Wikipedia Disappears From The Internet in Syria In: Menassat. May 19, 2008.
  61. ^ Tunisia: Censoring Wikipedia?
  62. ↑ Wikipedia blocked in Turkey . April 29, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  63. ↑ Turkish authorities block Wikipedia without giving reason . In: BBC News , April 29, 2017. 
  64. ↑ Wikipedia blocked across Turkey . In: Hurriyet Daily News , April 29, 2017. 
  65. ↑ Vikipedi sansüre isyan etti ( Turkish ) June 19, 2015. Accessed April 29, 2017.
  66. ↑ Turkish Constitutional Court orders the end of the Wikipedia block. Der Spiegel, December 26, 2019, accessed December 26, 2019 .
  67. ^ Charles Arthur: Wikipedia row escalates as internet watchdog considers censoring Amazon US over Scorpions image , Guardian News and Media Limited. December 8, 2008. 
  68. ^ Wikipedia child image censored , BBC News. December 8, 2008. 
  69. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/wikipedia-article-blocked-in-uk-over-child-photo-1057010.html
  70. ^ Censorship in the United Kingdom disenfranchises tens of thousands of Wikipedia editors , Wikimedia Foundation Pressrelease, December 7, 2008.
  71. ↑ ZDNet quoted: “floods of angry users”.
  72. ↑ IWF statement regarding Wikipedia webpage . In: Internet Watch Foundation . Archived from the original on June 7, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
  73. ^ Uzbekistan Blocks Its Wikipedia . February 17, 2012. Retrieved February 21, 2012. 
  74. ^ The Uzbek Wikipedia is Blocked in Uzbekistan (In Uzbek) . In: RFE / RL ’s Uzbek Service , February 16, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2012. 
  75. ↑ Wikipedia Articles in Uzbek Blocked . In: RFE / RL ’s Uzbek Service , February 16, 2012. Accessed February 21, 2012. 
  76. ↑ Wikipedia blocked in Venezuela as internet controls tighten. Retrieved January 14, 2019 .