Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:VK WikipediaBlock.png|thumb|right|240px|Users attempting to access the Virgin Killer article were often met with 404 errors or other messages |
[[Image:VK WikipediaBlock.png|thumb|right|240px|Users attempting to access the Virgin Killer article were often met with 404 errors or other messages.]] |
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On 5 December 2008, the [[Internet Watch Foundation]], a British [[watchdog group]], added the free online encyclopedia [[Wikipedia]]'s article [[Virgin Killer]], to a blacklist of websites it deems "potentially illegal" due to the presence of the controversial cover art for the [[Scorpions (band)|Scorpions]]'s 1976 album of that name, which depicts a girl posing naked, with a glass shatter blocking her genital area. [[:Image:Virgin Killer.jpg|The image page]] depicting the cover art was also blacklisted. The album art was deemed controversial at the time of its release, and was replaced in some markets by [[:Image:Virgin Killer alternate cover.jpg|an alternate cover image]] featuring a photo of the band members. |
On 5 December 2008, the [[Internet Watch Foundation]], a British [[watchdog group]], added the free online encyclopedia [[Wikipedia]]'s article [[Virgin Killer]], to a blacklist of websites it deems "potentially illegal" due to the presence of the controversial cover art for the [[Scorpions (band)|Scorpions]]'s 1976 album of that name, which depicts a girl posing naked, with a glass shatter blocking her genital area. [[:Image:Virgin Killer.jpg|The image page]] depicting the cover art was also blacklisted. The album art was deemed controversial at the time of its release, and was replaced in some markets by [[:Image:Virgin Killer alternate cover.jpg|an alternate cover image]] featuring a photo of the band members. |
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Revision as of 00:51, 9 December 2008
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
On 5 December 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation, a British watchdog group, added the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia's article Virgin Killer, to a blacklist of websites it deems "potentially illegal" due to the presence of the controversial cover art for the Scorpions's 1976 album of that name, which depicts a girl posing naked, with a glass shatter blocking her genital area. The image page depicting the cover art was also blacklisted. The album art was deemed controversial at the time of its release, and was replaced in some markets by an alternate cover image featuring a photo of the band members.
The IWF described the image as "a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18".[1] Users of major ISPs, including BT Group, Vodafone, Virgin Media/Tesco.net, Be/O2, EasyNet/UK Online/Sky Broadband, PlusNet, Demon, and TalkTalk (Opal Telecom), were unable to access the content, despite the album cover being available unfiltered on other major sites including Amazon.co.uk,[1] and available for sale in the UK.[2]
IWF blacklist
On 5 December 2008 the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK-based non-government organization, added the Wikipedia URLs for the Virgin Killer article and its image to its blacklist.[3] Sarah Robertson, director of communications for the IWF, said that the image was rated "1 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the least offensive". She described the picture as "erotic posing with no sexual activity".[3]
The IWF said they were first notified of the Wikipedia URL on Thursday, 4 December 2008. This followed the May 2008 reporting of the cover image on Wikipedia by US-based social conservative site WorldNetDaily to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An officer of the Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian advocacy group, commented, "By allowing that image to remain posted, Wikipedia is helping to further facilitate perversion and pedophilia."[4] The May controversy prompted extensive discussion among Wikipedia contributors and was reported in the website's internal newsletter, which noted that "relevant content policies and community practices" state that "Wikipedia is not censored, and barring a legal imperative the decision to display or remove the offensive image rests with Wikipedia's users."[5] EContent magazine subsequently reported that the discussion page associated with the article declared "Prior discussion has determined by broad consensus that the Virgin Killer cover will not be removed", and asserted that Wikipedia contributors "favor inclusion in all but the most extreme cases".[6]
Effects on Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, on which users can anonymously contribute through their IP address. Usually all internet users have a unique IP address, allowing Wikipedia to block users who vandalise the site or otherwise break its rules. However, as a result of ISP's using the IWF blacklist, traffic to Wikipedia via those affected ISPs is now routed through a proxy server.[7] This has caused Wikipedia to be unable to distinguish users, and to prevent vandalism they "instituted a blanket ban on anonymous edits from the six ISPs, which account for 95 per cent of British residential internet users"[8]
Possible solution
The software that Wikipedia runs on, called MediaWiki, could interpret X-Forwarded-For (XFF) headers, allowing Wikipedia to pick out the real IP address rather than a proxy IP address, said Wikimedia Foundation communications committee member Mathias Schindler. This would allow Wikipedia administrators to be able to block clients individually; while the whole proxy will never be blocked due to the actions of a single vandal.[7]
Response by Wikimedia
On the 7 December, the Wikimedia Foundation issued a press release about the blacklisting of their sites by the IWF.
“We have no reason to believe the article, or the image contained in the article, has been held to be illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world,” said the Wikimedia Foundation's General Counsel, Mike Godwin. “We believe it's worth noting that the image is currently visible on Amazon, where the album can be freely purchased by UK residents. It is available on thousands of websites that are accessible to the UK public.”
“The IWF didn't just block the image; it blocked access to the article itself, which discusses the image in a neutral, encyclopedic fashion,” said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “The IWF says its goal is to protect UK citizens, but I can't see how this action helps to achieve that – and meanwhile, it deprives UK internet users of the ability to access information which should be freely available to everyone. I urge the IWF to remove Wikipedia from its blacklist.”
The Wikimedia Foundation is proud of the work done by its volunteer editors, who have created an encyclopedia which external studies repeatedly validate as equal or better in quality compared with conventional encyclopedias. Wikipedia's editors take care to ensure the quality of the content of the encyclopedia, and to safeguard the core community values of freedom, independence, and neutrality.
The Wikimedia Foundation will continue its discussions with IWF to resolve this matter.[9]
See also
- Virgin Killer
- Internet censorship in the United Kingdom
- Criticism of Wikipedia
- Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/2008 IWF action
References
- ^ a b Wikipedia page censored in the UK for 'child pornography' The Guardian, 8 December 2008
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/08/wikipedia-censorship
- ^ a b Arthur, Charles (8 December 2008). "Internet watchdog considers censoring Amazon US over Scorpions image". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
- ^ "FBI investigates 'Wikipedophilia'", WorldNetDaily, May 7, 2008
- ^ "Explicit sexual content draws fire" by Wikipedia user Rageoss, Wikipedia Signpost, 12 May 2008
- ^ "Wikipedia Weighs Information Against Indecency" by Jessica Dye, July/August 2008 issue ofEContent
- ^ a b Kirk, Jeremy (8 December 2008). "Wikipedia Article Censored in UK for the First Time". PC World. IDG. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
- ^ Moses, Asher (8 December 2008). "Wikipedia added to child pornography blacklist". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
- ^ "Press releases/Censorship of WP in the UK Dec 2008". Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
