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Censorship of Wikipedia

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This article is about censorship of Wikipedia by governments. For censorship of Wikipedia by Wikipedia itself, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not censored.

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Main article: Internet censorship

Censorship of Wikipedia has occurred in several countries, including China, France, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. Some instances are examples of widespread Internet censorship in general that includes Wikipedia content. Others are indicative of measures to prevent the viewing of specific content deemed offensive.

By country

China

Further information: Internet censorship in China

Chinese Wikipedia was launched in May 2001.[1] Wikipedia received positive coverage in China's state press in early 2004, but it was blocked on 3 June 2004 on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Proposals to practice self-censorship in a bid to restore the site were rejected by the Chinese Wikipedia community.[1] However, a story in the International Herald Tribune comparing entries on Chinese Wikipedia and English Wikipedia on topics such as Mao Zedong and Taiwan concluded that the Chinese entries were "watered down and sanitized" of political controversy.[2] On 22 June 2004, access to Wikipedia was restored without explanation.[1] Wikipedia was blocked again for unknown reasons in September,[3] but only for four days.[1] Wikipedia was blocked in China in October 2005. Wikipedia users Shi Zhao and Cui Wei wrote letters to technicians and authorities to try to convince them to unblock the website. Part of the letter read, "By blocking Wikipedia, we lose a chance to present China's voice to the world, allowing evil cults, Taiwan independence forces and others . . . to present a distorted image of China."[1]

In October 2006, The New York Times reported that English Wikipedia was unblocked in China, although Chinese Wikipedia remained blocked. New media researcher Andrew Lih blogged that he could not read the English-language article on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China.[4] Lih said that "there is no monolithically operating Great Firewall of China", noting that for users of various internet service providers in different locations in China–China Netcom in Beijing, China Telecom in Shanghai, and various providers in Anhui—Chinese Wikipedia was only blocked in Anhui.[5] Advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders praised Wikipedia's leaders for not self-censoring.[6]

On 10 November 2006, Lih reported that Chinese Wikipedia appeared to have been fully unblocked.[7] Lih confirmed the full unblocking several days later and offered a partial analysis of the effects based on the rate of new account creation on Chinese Wikipedia. Prior to the unblocking, 300–400 new accounts were created on Chinese Wikipedia daily. In the four days after the unblocking, the rate of new registrations more than tripled to over 1,200 daily, jumping into the second fastest growing Wikipedia after the English version. Similarly, there were 75% more articles created in the week ending on 13 November than during the week before. Coming on the same weekend that Chinese Wikipedia passed the 100,000 article mark, Lih predicted that the second 100,000 would come quickly but that the existing body of Chinese Wikipedia users would have their hands full teaching the new users and teaching them basic Wikipedia policies and norms.[8]

On 16 November 2006, Reuters news agency reported the main page of Chinese Wikipedia could be displayed, except for some taboo political subjects, such as "4 June, [1989 protests]".[9] However, subsequent reports suggested that both the Chinese and English versions had been reblocked the next day on 17 November.[10] On 15 June 2007, access to apolitical articles on English Wikipedia was restored.[11] On 6 September 2007, IDG News reported that English Wikipedia was blocked again.[12] On 2 April 2008, The Register reported that the blocks on English and Chinese Wikipedias was lifted.[13][14] This was confirmed by the BBC, and came within the context of foreign journalists arriving in Beijing to report on the 2008 Summer Olympics and the International Olympic Committee's request for press freedom during the games.[15] In September 2008, Jimmy Wales had a meeting with Cai Mingzhao, Vice Director of China's State Council Information Office. While no agreements were made, Wales believes that a channel of communication has been opened between Wikipedia's community and the PRC Government.[16] As of 2012, both Chinese and English Wikipedias are accessible in China[17] except for political articles. If a Chinese IP tries to access (including searching) a "sensitive" article, the IP will be blocked from visiting Wikipedia for from several minutes to up to an hour.[18]

Chinese authorities started blocking access to the secure (https) version of the site on 31 May 2013, although the non-secure (http) version is still available – the latter is vulnerable to keyword filtering allowing individual articles to be selectively blocked. Greatfire urged Wikipedia and users to circumvent the block by using https access to other IP addresses owned by Wikipedia.[19] In 2013, after Jimmy Wales stated that Wikipedia will not tolerate "5 seconds" of censorship, Shen Yi, an Internet researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai said, that while "Wikipedia is tough against the Chinese government, it may not necessarily be so grand when faced with US government or European justice systems' requirements to modify or delete articles or disclose information".[20]

According to Huffington Post as of June 2015, both encrypted and un-encrypted Chinese-language Wikipedia is blocked.[21]

France

Further information: Internet censorship in France

In April 2013, a Wikipedia article describing the Pierre-sur-Haute military radio station attracted attention from the French interior intelligence agency DCRI. The agency attempted to have the article about the facility removed from the French language Wikipedia. The DCRI pressured Rémi Mathis, a volunteer administrator of the French language Wikipedia and resident of France, into deleting the article.[22][23] The Wikimedia Foundation asked the DCRI which parts of the article were causing a problem, noting that the article closely reflected information in a 2004 documentary made by Télévision Loire 7, a French local television station, which is freely available online.[22][24] The DCRI refused to give these details, and repeated its demand for deletion of the article. According to a statement issued by Wikimédia France on 6 April 2013:

The DCRI summoned a Wikipedia volunteer in their offices on April 4th [2013]. This volunteer, which was one of those having access to the tools that allow the deletion of pages, was forced to delete the article while in the DCRI offices, on the understanding that he would have been held in custody and prosecuted if he did not comply. Under pressure, he had no other choice than to delete the article, despite explaining to the DCRI this is not how Wikipedia works. He warned the other sysops that trying to undelete the article would engage their responsibility before the law. This volunteer had no link with that article, having never edited it and not even knowing of its existence before entering the DCRI offices. He was chosen and summoned because he was easily identifiable, given his regular promotional actions of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in France.

— Wikimédia France[25]

Later, the article was restored by another Wikipedia contributor.[25][26] As a result of the controversy, the article became the most read page on the French Wikipedia,[27] with over 120,000-page views during the weekend of 6/7 April 2013.[28] It was translated into multiple other languages.[29] The French newspaper 20 minutes,[30] Ars Technica,[27] and a posting on Slashdot,[31] noted it as an example of the Streisand effect in action. The French Ministry of the Interior told the Agence France-Presse that it did not wish to comment on the incident.[32]

According to a judicial source quoted in an AFP story on 8 April, the article's deletion "was performed as part of a preliminary inquiry" led by the "anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor's office" on the grounds that the French language Wikipedia article compromised "classified material related to the chain of transmission for nuclear launch orders".[33]

Following the incident, Télévision Loire 7 said that it expected that the DCRI would request that it take down the original 2004 report on which the Wikipedia article was based, though it had been filmed and broadcast with the full cooperation of the French armed forces.[34] The National Union of Police Commissaires suggested that the next step would be for the judiciary to order French Internet service providers to block access to the Wikipedia article.[35] However, the France-based NGO Reporters Without Borders criticised the DCRI's actions as "a bad precedent". The organisation's spokesperson told Le Point that, "if the institution considers that secret defence information has been released, it has every opportunity to be recognised by the courts in arguing and clarifying its application. It is then up to the judge, the protector of fundamental freedoms, to assess the reality and extent of military secrecy." The spokesperson noted that the information contained in the article had come from a documentary that had previously been filmed and distributed with the cooperation of the army, and that the hosts and intermediaries should not be held responsible.[36]

Iran

Further information: Internet censorship in Iran

In a November 2013 report published by the Center for Global Communication Studies of the University of Pennsylvania, researchers Collin Anderson and Nima Nazeri scanned 800,000 Persian language Wikipedia articles and found that the Iranian government blocks 963 of these pages. According to the authors, "Censors repeatedly targeted Wikipedia pages about government rivals, minority religious beliefs, and criticisms of the state, officials, and the police. Just under half of the blocked Wiki-pages are biographies, including pages about individuals the authorities have allegedly detained or killed."[37] Anderson said that Persian Wikipedia, as a microcosm of the Iranian internet, is a "useful place to uncover the types of online content forbidden and an excellent template to identify keyword blocking themes and filtering rules that apply across the greater internet."[38] In May 2014, according to Mashable, the Iranian government blocked at least two pages on the Farsi Wikipedia.[39]

According to Reporters Without Borders, the Iranian government has blocked access to Kurdish Wikipedia for extended periods of time.[40]

Italy

Further information: Internet censorship in Italy

On 4 October 2011, following a decision adopted by the community, the contents of the Italian version of Wikipedia were hidden and the website was blocked by its administrators, as a protest against paragraph 29 of the "DDL intercettazioni" (Wiretapping Bill).[41] The proposed bill would empower anyone who believes themselves to have been offended by the content of a web site to enforce publication of a reply, uneditable and uncommented, on the same web site, within 48 hours and without any prior evaluation of the claim by a judge or to face a €12,000 fine.

On 4, 5 and 6 October all pages on the Italian version of Wikipedia redirected to a statement opposing the proposed legislation.[42] On 7 October the Italian Wikipedia pages were again available, but a notice about the proposed legislation was still displayed at the top of pages.

Pakistan

Further information: Internet censorship in Pakistan

For seven hours on 31 March 2006, the entire domain of Wikipedia.org was blocked in Pakistan because one article contained information pertaining to the controversial cartoons of Muhammad.[43][44][45]

The English version of Wikipedia was blocked in Pakistan for several days in May 2010 during the controversy surrounding Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.[46][47]

Russia

Further information: Censorship in Russia § Internet

On 5 April 2013, it was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media that Wikipedia had been blacklisted over the article "Cannabis Smoking" on Russian Wikipedia.[48][49] On 31 March 2013 The New York Times reported that Russia was beginning 'Selectively Blocking [the] Internet'.[50]

Saudi Arabia

Further information: Censorship in Saudi Arabia

On 11 July 2006, the Saudi government blocked access to Google and Wikipedia for its sexual and politically sensitive content.[51][52] Many articles from the English and Arabic Wikipedia projects are censored in Saudi Arabia.[53]

Syria

Further information: Internet censorship in Syria

Access to the Arabic Wikipedia was blocked in Syria between 30 April 2008 and 13 February 2009, although other language editions remained accessible.[54][55]

Thailand

Further information: Internet censorship in Thailand

Wikipedia's article on Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been blocked by most Thai ISPs since October 2008, due to lèse majesté concerns.[citation needed]

Tunisia

Further information: Internet censorship in Tunisia

The Wikimedia website was inaccessible from Tunisia between 23 and 27 November 2006.[56]

United Kingdom

See also: Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia and Internet censorship in the United Kingdom

In December 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based non-government organization, added the Wikipedia article Virgin Killer to its internet blacklist due to the cover image and the illegality of child pornography; the image had been assessed as the lowest level of legal concern: "erotic posing with no sexual activity".[57] As a result, people using many major UK ISPs were blocked from viewing the entire article by the Cleanfeed system,[57][58][59] and a large part of the UK was blocked from editing Wikipedia owing to the means used by the IWF to block the image. Following discussion, representations by the Wikimedia Foundation (who host the Wikipedia website),[60] and public complaints,[61] the IWF reversed their decision three days later, and confirmed that in future they would not block copies of the image that were hosted overseas.[62]

Uzbekistan

Further information: Internet censorship in Uzbekistan

The entire Wikipedia was briefly blocked twice in Uzbekistan, in 2007 and 2008.[63] Blocking of the Uzbek Wikipedia caught the attention of the international press in late February 2012.[64] Internet users in Uzbekistan trying to access Uzbek-language pages were redirected to msn.com of Microsoft. Users in Uzbekistan could easily open Wikipedia articles in other languages. Only Uzbek-language articles were blocked.[65]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Pan, Philip (20 February 2006). "Reference Tool on Web Finds Fans, Censors". The Washington Post. Beijing. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  2. ^ Montopoli, Brian (30 November 2006). "Is Wikipedia China Really Wikipedia?". CBS News. Associated Press. Retrieved 23 December 2011.[dead link‍]
  3. ^ "Alert: Authorities block access to online encyclopaedia". International Freedom of Expression Exchange. 21 October 2005. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  4. ^ Cohen, Noam (16 October 2006). "Chinese Government Relaxes Its Total Ban on Wikipedia". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  5. ^ "China PARTIALLY unblocks Wikipedia". andrewlih.com blog. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
  6. ^ "China 'unblocks' Wikipedia site". BBC News. 16 November 2006. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  7. ^ "Chinese Wikipedia now fully unblocked?". andrewlih.com blog. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
  8. ^ "Chinese Wikipedia's Surge in Growth". andrewlih.com blog. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
  9. ^ "Wikipedia unblocked in China after year-long ban". Reuters. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
  10. ^ "The Nanny changes her mind: Wikipedia blocked again". DANWEI. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
  11. ^ "English Wikipedia unblocked in China". Retrieved 20 June 2007.
  12. ^ Schwankert, Steven (6 September 2007). "Wikipedia Blocked in China Again". IDG News via PCworld. Retrieved 26 January 2008.
  13. ^ Barak, Sylvie (3 April 2008). "China uncensors Wikipedia". The Inquirer. Retrieved 3 April 2008.
  14. ^ Cade Metz (31 July 2008). "Chinese net censors unblock BBC, Wikipedia". The Register. Retrieved 31 July 2008.
  15. ^ "Beijing unblocks BBC Chinese site", BBC, 31 July 2008
  16. ^ "Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales meets China's censors". Rconversation.blogs.com. 1 October 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  17. ^ "Wikipedia founder caps off MSE Symposium". The John Hopkins News-Letter. 15 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  18. ^ "Academics break the Great Firewall of China", Tom Espiner, ZDNet, 4 July 2006
  19. ^ McMillan, Graeme (4 June 2013) "Chinese authorities apparently started blocking access to the site this past May 31", Digital Trends.
  20. ^ "维基百科：宁愿放弃中国业务 网络审查“5秒都不行" ("Wikipedia would rather give up business in China than tolerate '5 seconds of Internet Censorship' "), Global Times, 13 August 2013.
  21. ^ Smith, Charlie (18 June 2015). "We Had Our Arguments, But We Will Miss You Wikipedia". Huffington Post. United States. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  22. ^ a b Willsher, Kim (7 April 2013). "French secret service accused of censorship over Wikipedia page". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  23. ^ Kleinz, Torsten (6 April 2013). "Französischer Geheimdienst verlangt Löschung eines Wikipedia-Artikels". Heise Online (in German). Heise. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  24. ^ Poncet, Guerric (9 April 2013). "Wikipédia et DCRI : la chaîne locale "s'attend" à être censurée". Le Point (in French). Paris. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  25. ^ a b "French homeland intelligence threatens a volunteer sysop to delete a Wikipedia Article" (Press release). Wikimédia France. 6 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  26. ^ La DCRI accusée d'avoir illégalement forcé la suppression d'un article de Wikipédia – Le Monde, 6 April 2013 Template:Fr icon
  27. ^ a b Geuss, Megan (6 April 2013). "Wikipedia editor allegedly forced by French intelligence to delete "classified" entry". Arstechnica. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  28. ^ "Wikipedia article traffic statistics for 'Station hertzienne militaire de Pierre-sur-Haute'". stats.grok.se.
  29. ^ List of translations on Wikidata
  30. ^ "La DCRI accusée d'avoir fait pression pour obtenir la suppression d'un article Wikipedia". 20 minutes (in French). 6 April 2013.
  31. ^ saibot834 (6 April 2013). "French intelligence agency forces removal of Wikipedia entry". Slashdot. Retrieved 7 April 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ "La DCRI accusée d'avoir fait supprimer un article sur Wikipedia" (in French). Agence France-Presse. 6 April 2013.
  33. ^ CP; Huet, Anne-Claire (8 April 2013). "Le retrait de l'article Wikipedia demandé dans le cadre d'une enquête préliminaire". La Chaîne Info (in French). Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  34. ^ Poncet, Guerric (10 April 2013). "Wikipédia et DCRI : la chaîne locale "s'attend" à être censurée". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  35. ^ Poncet, Guerric (10 April 2013). "Un syndicat de police évoque le filtrage de Wikipédia". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  36. ^ Poncet, Guerric (10 April 2013). "RSF dénonce les 'manoeuvres de la DCRI' contre Wikipédia". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  37. ^ Anderson, Colin; Nazeri, Nima (7 November 2013). "Citation Filtered: Iran's Censorship of Wikipedia" (PDF). Center for Global Communication Studies (University of Pennsylvania).
  38. ^ "How Iran Uses Wikipedia To Censor The Internet". BuzzFeed. 12 November 2013.
  39. ^ "Iran blocks access to Google, Wikipedia: Report". Times of India. 17 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  40. ^ "Iran:New York Times website unblocked, YouTube still inaccessible". 7 December 2006.
  41. ^ "Camera dei Deputati: disegno di legge N. 1415-B" (PDF) (in Italian). Camera dei Deputati. 11 June 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2011. (English translation)
  42. ^ "Wikipedia Shuts Down Italian Site In Response To Berlusconi's New Wiretap Act", Adam Taylor, Business Insider, 4 October 2011
  43. ^ "Websites blocked, PTA tells SC: Blasphemous material". Dawn. 14 March 2006.
  44. ^ "Pakistan Blocks Wikipedia". Blogcritics. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  45. ^ "Wikipedia Blocked in Pakistan for seven hours". Karachi Metblogs. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  46. ^ Ali, Basit (20 May 2010). "Youtube, Wikipedia, Flickr blocked in Pakistan after Facebook". Retrieved 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  47. ^ "Pakistan blocks access to YouTube in internet crackdown". BBC News. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  48. ^ "Russia May Block Wikipedia Access Over Narcotics Article | RIA Novosti". RIA Novosti. 6 May 2013.
  49. ^ "Russian media regulator confirms Wikipedia blacklisted". Russia Beyond The Headlines. Interfax. 5 April 2013.
  50. ^ "Russians Selectively Blocking Internet". The New York Times. 31 March 2013.
  51. ^ http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=85616&d=19&m=7&y=2006 [dead link‍]
  52. ^ http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=189&sid=2 [dead link‍]
  53. ^ Wikipedia:List of articles censored in Saudi Arabia
  54. ^ Institute for War and Peace Reporting (3 June 2008). "Syrian youth break through internet blocks". Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  55. ^ Template:Ar icon Arabic Wikipedia Disappears From The Internet in Syria, Menassat, 19 May 2008 (English translation)
  56. ^ "Tunisia: Censoring Wikipedia?", Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices, 27 November 2006.
  57. ^ a b Arthur, Charles (8 December 2008). "Wikipedia row escalates as internet watchdog considers censoring Amazon US over Scorpions image". Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
  58. ^ "Wikipedia child image censored". BBC News. 8 December 2008. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
  59. ^ AP: Wikipedia article blocked in UK over child photo[dead link‍]
  60. ^ "Censorship in the United Kingdom disenfranchises tens of thousands of Wikipedia editors", Wikimedia Foundation press release, 7 December 2008
  61. ^ ZDNet cites "floods of angry users".
  62. ^ "IWF statement regarding Wikipedia webpage". Internet Watch Foundation. Retrieved 9 December 2008.[dead link‍]
  63. ^ "Uzbekistan Blocks Its Wikipedia". RIA Novosti. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  64. ^ "The Uzbek Wikipedia is Blocked in Uzbekistan (In Uzbek)". RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. 16 February 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  65. ^ "Wikipedia Articles in Uzbek Blocked". RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. 16 February 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
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