Abstract
This study, conducted by the Internet Monitor project at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, analyzes the scope of government-sponsored censorship of Wikimedia sites around the world. The study finds that, as of June 2016, China was likely censoring the Chinese language Wikipedia project, and Thailand and Uzbekistan were likely interfering intermittently with specific language projects of Wikipedia as well. However, considering the widespread use of filtering technologies and the vast coverage of Wikipedia, our study finds that, as of June 2016, there was relatively little censorship of Wikipedia globally. In fact, our study finds there was less censorship in June 2016 than before Wikipedia’s transition to HTTPS-only content delivery in June 2015. HTTPS prevents censors from seeing which page a user is viewing, which means censors must choose between blocking the entire site and allowing access to all articles. This finding suggests that the shift to HTTPS has been a good one in terms of ensuring accessibility to knowledge. The study identifies and documents the blocking of Wikipedia content using two complementary data collection and analysis strategies: a client-side system that collects data from the perspective of users around the globe and a server-side tool to analyze traffic coming in to Wikipedia servers. Both client- and server-side methods detected events that we consider likely related to censorship, in addition to a large number of suspicious events that remain unexplained. The report features results of our data analysis and insights into the state of access to Wikipedia content in 15 select countries.
Highlights
As one of the largest online repositories of user-generated content in the world, covering topics that range from the general reference[3] to the highly controversial,[4] Wikipedia has repeatedly found itself the target of government censors in countries ranging from China to Iran to Uzbekistan
One or two offending articles have prompted wholesale blocks of the site: Russia has intermittently blocked access to all of Wikipedia out of concerns around articles related to the smoking of marijuana;[7] and in 2006, Pakistan temporarily blocked the site in response to an article on "Draw Mohammed Day," which violated certain religious prohibitions against visual depictions of Mohammed.[8]
Traffic to Yiddish Wikipedia from Thailand is too low volume to be able to identify any anomalously low periods. While it is unlikely we identified article-level censorship in Thailand, we did confirm that as of June 2016, Thailand was at least intermittently interfering with the regular functioning of Wikipedia
Summary
As one of the largest online repositories of user-generated content in the world, covering topics that range from the general reference[3] to the highly controversial,[4] Wikipedia has repeatedly found itself the target of government censors in countries ranging from China to Iran to Uzbekistan. A detailed look at the filtering of specific Wikipedia articles can serve as a window into the kinds of content—political, historical, religious, sexual, cultural, drug- or alcohol-related—that trigger censorship in different countries. Censorship of Wikipedia became slightly more complex, ,
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
