“We do not work with censors”

American Jimmy Wales, the one who founded Wikipedia commented in not a very good way the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (ROSKOMNADZOR) actions that included the Internet encyclopedia in the blacklist of sites and demand to change or delete more than 10 articles on Russian and English languages. Earlier Wales not only refused to change something in these articles but he also announced that “it is better to block than to let someone to censor”.

In the response to “Moskovskie Novosti” question “Doesn’t it better to delete one article instead of depriving millions of people from access to information?” Wales said: “Maybe it is be better for government to stop its foolish campaign that blocks the access to articles from the encyclopedia for people who love it”.

The founder of the Wikipedia is doubt, that his encyclopedia will be closed in Russia. “No one can be so silly to block the whole encyclopedia, introducing by such actions censorship on the fundamental information”, - answered Wales.

If talking about Russian version of Wikipedia, where there is information about Cannabis in one of publications, and that became the reason for Roscomnadzor decision, Jimmy Wales noted that “the better way to fight with drugs using is to spread the information about how it is dangerous”.

He told about “main principle” of his brainchild – not to work with censors. And made an example: “We were blocked in China during several years until they understand everything and started to block only certain pages, instead of the whole site. We still do not help them in such actions, but we cannot prohibit them to infringe interests of their own nation”.

He also noted that the Wikipedia policy is based on the fact that all the articles should be neutral, and Russian Wikipedia is not exclusion. “By the way, concerning placing of disputable materials, Wikipedia is guided only by laws of Florida, USA where our servers are situated.

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Russia follows Syria and Iran in tightening Internet censorship

Authorities of many eastern countries are trying to introduce a very tough censorship and block Internet sites as soon as they publish opposition content. The last country in this list is Russia. The authorities of this country introduce a law that allows government to block certain pages in the Internet.

Russia is the last country that joined the list of countries that block access to sites. This “campaign” is seemingly aimed at protection of under ages. Earlier Russian parliament approved the law concerning with the Internet. It allows government to block websites that contain prohibited in the country information. In addition, there is a "blacklist" of sites that can be harmful for under ages.

Now this law is in the force and started to be used in practice. As a result, some of the social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, have been forced to delete from their pages all the material that is concerned as illegal. While YouTube is still continue to oppose this decision, referring to the Russian court with a counter suit against the government.

Before Russia, some countries have introduced Internet censorship supposedly for fighting with Internet crimes. These countries are Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Authorities of these countries try to limit the freedom of expression.

Iran takes the second place in the world after North Korea in the ranking of countries with the most severe censorship on the Internet. The Islamic Republic censor all western and anti-Islamic contents in the Internet.

As for Syria, earlier the country took the sixth place in the world among countries with the most tough Internet control. However, that was before the Syrian revolution. Recently, the Assad regime aims at introducing even more severe censorship and closing more and more sites, the goal is to prevent the spread of news about the actions of the rebels and the Free Syrian Army.


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