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Wikipedia Bans Church of Scientology
Posted by
timothy
on Thursday May 28, @09:49PM
from the there's-no-pleasing-some-people dept.
from the there's-no-pleasing-some-people dept.
El Reg writes "Showing a new-found resolve to crack down on self-serving edits, Wikipedia has banned contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology. According to Wikipedia administrators, this marks the first time such a high-profile organization has been banished for allegedly pushing its own agenda on the 'free encyclopedia anyone can edit.'"
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Firehose:Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology by Anonymous Coward
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CoS Bigwig Likens Wikipedia Ban to Nazis' Yellow Star Decree 563 comments
We mentioned on Thursday that Wikipedia has banned edits originating from certain IP addresses belonging to the Church of Scientology; reader newtley writes now that Scientology leader (CEO and Chairman of the Board of the linked, but legally separate, Religious Technology Center) David Miscavige calls the ban "a 'despicable hate crime,' and asks, 'What's next, will Scientologists have to wear yellow, six-pointed stars on our clothing?' During World War II, Hitler forced Jewish men, women and children to wear a a yellow cloth star bearing the word Jude to brand them in the streets of Europe, and in the Nazi death camps."
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The Irony (Score:5, Funny)
Does this mean that Scientology now has to do their edits Anonymously?
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Re:The Irony (Score:5, Funny)
Our E-Meter detects more money in your pocket.
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Parent
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Parent
Fine by me (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Fine by me (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but all this does is cracks down on "official" astroturfing. We all know that xenu's followers will simply do their edits from home, from now on.
This sort of thing cannot be contained if the information is publically editable. I just hope this doesn't mark the beginning of the end for Wikipedia.
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Parent
Re:Fine by me (Score:5, Interesting)
This sort of thing cannot be contained if the information is publically editable. I just hope this doesn't mark the beginning of the end for Wikipedia.
If this was the end, wikipedia has had the fat lady singing since the beginning. There's way too much useful information nobody bothers getting into an edit war about to be killed off by these sorts of things. If I didn't read about them on slashdot, I'd barely know they were there but I guess that's because I already know where to expect them.
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About Fucking Time (Score:5, Informative)
The Church of Scientology has a long history of censorship and general Internet fuckery.
http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/censorware.html [factnet.org]
Two things:
1. Wikipedia should never lift the ban.
2. Jimbo should watch his back; Scientology *DOES NOT* play nice when it doesn't get what it wants.
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Re:About Fucking Time (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, look what they did to that Shamwow dude.
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Parent
Re:About Fucking Time (Score:5, Informative)
My brother in law is a practicing Scientologist, and he works at the "Church" in San Diego.
He's explained to me time and time again that the church's position is "if you're not with us, you're against us", and that they defend their territory without impunity. Even perceived threats are great game.
When I ask him, "how can you trust an institution that is so legally violent? if it wanted to be judged by its merits, it shouldn't be litigating the hell out of everyone that stands in its way!", he responds "our opponents deserve litigation because they intend to suppress us". It is quite frustrating to have these conversations with him.
Even more interestingly is that inter-church issues are not taken to court, in fact, to take an internal quarrel to court is grounds from a church ban. They have their own "ethics committees" that see such cases, but they generally follow their own laws and not those of the locale they're in.
So I asked him, "if it's a matter of a constitutional issue, why wouldn't you take it up to the Supreme Court?" and his reply is "we don't trust or expect the legal system to understand how we do things."
I'm quite sure he didn't see the double standard in his views - litigation is good, when it's convenient for the church to litigate.
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Why!? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Why!? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, it's all fine and nice to be anti-religion, but I am so sick of people involving Christianity whenever Scientology comes up. There is a difference between religion and cult, despite trying to lump them together for your own jollies, and this is coming from an atheist.
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Parent
It was only a matter of time (Score:5, Interesting)
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xenu (Score:5, Funny)
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It's not their fault! (Score:5, Funny)
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how many more people have to die? (Score:5, Interesting)
no criminal organization should be allowed to hide under the thin veil of religion
if they offer therapy to people for a fee they need to adhere to state guidelines and laws concerning licencing.
"1 Scientology has attempted to operate its Narconon drug
"therapy" program outside of required State licensing or
inspection on a leased "independently sovereign" Indian
reservation outside of Newkirk Oaklahoma. Just this month, after
extensive and costly litigation the state goverment of Oaklahoma
ordered this facility closed."
http://skull.piratehaven.org/~atman/factnet/scnbond2.txt [piratehaven.org]
Its amazing how many people have ended up 6-feet under after becoming a member of scientology:
http://www.badcult.info/watd/ [badcult.info]
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Good :) (Score:5, Funny)
They were just way too pushy. OMG and I don't even know how they call themselves a church. I'm Catholic and we just go about our own business and don't try to convert anyone or make people believe what we believe.
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Scientology and earthlink.net (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't the Church of Scientology own (a big stake in) earthlink.net some years ago? Is this still the case? If so, does this mean that this ISP's users will be banned from editing Wikipedia?
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So now it's... (Score:5, Funny)
Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia many people can edit!
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What Science? (Score:5, Insightful)
Scientology is to science what Al Qaeda is to Islam, total fucktards having hijacked a noble precept.
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Operation Clambake (Score:5, Informative)
For more really really fun and interesting info, go to Operation Clambake. Before you freak about the URL, the URL is real, and so is the guy (Andreas Heldal-Lund, who runs this out of Norway, which is why Scientology has not gotten any legal traction against him yet). I recommend a read, for what little that's worth.
http://www.xenu.net/ [xenu.net]
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Re:Yay (Score:5, Insightful)
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Tor already mostly blocked (Score:5, Informative)
TOR exit nodes are already notoriously difficult to edit from:
*You can't edit anonymously.
*If you have a new-ish account that is barely old enough to let you edit semi-protected articles, your account is treated as if it was new when you are connected via TOR.
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Re:nice (Score:5, Funny)
Wikipedia 2 - Rise of the Thetans
That sounds like something Hubbard would cook up!
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Re:nice (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, when the conservatives felt that Wikipedia had too much of a liberal bias, they went and founded Conservapedia [conservapedia.com], so maybe COS could start scientolopedia.com or something?
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Re:freedom of expression (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one private entity to another, a simple case of "my house, my rules" - Abuse them and I'll make you leave.
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