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.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS