Beijing has broadened its block of online encyclopedia Wikipedia to include all language editions, an Internet censorship research group reported just weeks ahead of China’s most politically explosive anniversary.
According to a report by the Open Observatory of Network Interference, China started blocking all language editions of Wikipedia last month.
Previously, most editions of Wikipedia — besides the Chinese-language version, which was reportedly blocked in 2015 — were available, the group said in its report.
Reporters on Wednesday could not open any of Wikipedia’s versions in China.
“At the end of the day, the content that really matters is Chinese-language content,” said Charlie Smith, the pseudonym of one of the cofounders of Greatfire.org, which tracks online censorship in China.
“Blocking access to all language versions of Wikipedia for Internet users in China is just symbolic,” he said. “It symbolizes the fear that the Chinese authorities have of the truth.”
The Wikimedia Foundation said it had not received any notices explaining the block.
Wikipedia has been blocked intermittently in China since 2004, the foundation said.
“With the expansion of this block, millions of readers and volunteer editors, writers, academics and researchers within China cannot access this resource or share their knowledge and achievements with the world,” foundation communications manager Samantha Lien said by e-mail.
“When one country, region or culture cannot join the global conversation on Wikipedia, the entire world is poorer,” she added.
China’s online censorship apparatus blocks a large number of foreign sites, such as Facebook, Google and the New York Times.
Topics that are deemed too “sensitive” are also scrubbed, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, which is to mark its 30th anniversary on June 4.
The block comes as Chinese authorities ramp up online controls and crack down on Great Firewall circumvention tools, such as virtual private network software.
In November last year, China’s cyberspace authority said it had “cleaned up” 9,800 accounts on Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat and Sina Weibo that it accused of spreading “politically harmful” information and rumors.
Chinese Twitter users have also said that they have experienced intimidation from local authorities — and even detention — for their tweets.
The move to block all versions of Wikipedia could be linked to online translation tools, which make it easy for Chinese users to read anything on Wikipedia, Smith said.
Images can also be considered taboo, he said.
“A picture is worth a thousand words, and there is no dearth of Tiananmen-related imagery on the Wikipedia Web site,” Smith added.
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