Wikipedia online in China
p2pnet.net News:- People in China again have “unfettered” access the Wikipedia, “less than a month after the Chinese government moved to extend access to the English version of the Web site from within the country,” says the International Herald Tribune, quoting from The Boston Globe and The New York Times.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says site administrators hadn’t received any explanation: “There was no official word or unofficial word. It’s a mysterious black box.”
But the access isn’t, in fact, “unfettered”.
“Subjects that are still off-limits on Wikipedia include high-level politics, the crackdown of the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the Falun Gong movement and certain historical events,” says the story, contradicting itself.
Meanwhile, the likes of Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have, “voluntarily censored the Internet content they offer in China, in exchange for the right to do business there,” as the Tribune succinctly sums the situation up.
Wales, however, “has repeatedly said that Wikipedia would not remove articles about subjects regarded by the Chinese government as controversial, like the 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.”
But he also said Wikipedia wants, “to reach out and make friendly overtures – at least if there was a problem with a particular article they could tell us”.t;
In removing restrictions, “the Chinese government appears to be choosing to rely on keyword filters that block specific material on all sites, including Wikipedia, rather than banning entire Web sites,” says the Herald Tribune.
Also See:
International Herald Tribune – China lifts its Wikipedia ban, but some topics are blocked, November 16, 2006
homeless people – Pssssst. Wanna buy a PS3?, November 13, 2006
If you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
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November 17th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Today China blocked again WIKIpedia ! as seen on tv… I read also on CNN.com website. You can fight censorship via proxy sites like: http://www.surfinter.net and http://www.hidemyway.com – it is easy and free, anonymous and also hides your IP address. You can also access wikipedia, myspace or other blocked sites from work or school. Fight back for your freedom