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Russia Declares War on Wikipedia
Putin’s fury towards neutrality.
Wikipedia has long been a thorn in Russia’s side, an oasis of information the Kremlin does its best to hide.
The fight began escalating in April, with Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor accusing Wikipedia of posting, “Unreliable socially significant materials, as well as other prohibited information”.
It recently said the platform contains, “Prohibited materials, including fakes about the course of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine.”
The censorship creeps outward
If you search for Wikipedia articles within Russia, a red message appears saying that the website is violating Russian law.
Independent reporting is banned—and if you write anything that doesn’t closely mimick the Kremlin’s narrative, you face up to 15 years in prison.
Just 10 years ago, Wikipedia did a far poorer job managing disinformation — especially on Russian sections of its site. The articles were poorly written and loaded with laughable hogwash stories of heroism and villainy.
The signature example was Vladimir Putin’s Wikipedia page. It spoke of his grandiose feats of…
