The answer is no. No, the Wikimedia Foundation will not remove any information relating to the war in Ukraine from the Russian pages of Wikipedia.
Last Tuesday, March 1, the Russian communication and information regulatory agency, Roskomnadzor, had indeed accused the online encyclopedia of broadcasting in the article on the invasion of Ukraine “erroneous reports of acts of terrorism and other unreliable information, with a strong social impact”.
In a version dated February 27 of this article, she points in particular to information on the deaths in the Russian army and the Ukrainian civilian population, as well as on the consequences of economic sanctions in Russia. If the foundation did not act, the Roskomnadzor agency would be forced to limit access to Wikipedia, in agreement with the Russian prosecutor general’s office.
In response, in a press release, the Wikimedia Foundation indicates that it will not comply with Russian injunctions.
“The Wikimedia Foundation and the movement we are part of have never backed down from government threats to deny people their basic human right to access free, open, and verifiable information. (…) Tuesday’s withdrawal request is a threat of censorship. Denying people access to reliable information, in times of crisis, can have life-changing consequences”she wrote.
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The Russian Wikipedia community is also up against this censorship attempt. In a press release, she explains that hundreds of contributors are currently participating in the writing of this article, according to the strict rules of verifiability and neutrality.
“Russians constitute almost three-quarters of the editors of Russian-language Wikipedia. If Wikipedia were to become blocked in Russia, then these editors would no longer be able to participate in content control according to the process described above; therefore, the credibility and neutrality of articles will suffer”points out Wikimedia UK.
Serial blocks
It is true that this article must be a serious thorn in the side of the Russian government. He is very careful to present his invasion of Ukrainian territory as a simple “special military operation”. He tries to conceal as much as possible the impact of this operation on his troops and civilians.
Obviously, he’s trying to silence those who don’t respect this side of the story. Twitter and Facebook are already partially blocked. Foreign media websites were also blocked, such as BBC, Deutsche Welle, Meduza or Radio Free Europe.
Local media are no better off. The blocking also concerns the sites of the Echo radio station in Moscow – which has since dissolved itself – or of the Dojd television channel – whose activity is suspended. The Russian authorities force the media of their country to use only official information on the subject and to banish words such as “war” or “invasion”. A bill is being prepared in the Duma to punish with 15 years in prison those who disseminate “false information” about the Russian army.
Sources : Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia UK