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Wikipedia Blocked in Pakistan Over 'Sacrilegious' Content (bloomberg.com) 112

Pakistan has blocked Wikipedia services in the South Asian nation after the platform failed to remove "sacrilegious" content. From a report: The action was taken because some of the content is still available on Wikipedia after the expiry of a 48-hour deadline, Malahat Obaid, spokesperson for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, said by phone.
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Wikipedia Blocked in Pakistan Over 'Sacrilegious' Content

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  • Impossible (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03, 2023 @05:16PM (#63263693)

    You can't argue with religious people, because faith isn't based on facts that can be proved or disproven. So from their point of view, they're right and you'll always be wrong if you don't agree with their religion.

    • "Never argue with a fool, because onlookers will be unable to tell the difference." -- Someone who wasn't Mark Twain

      "If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest." -- Proverbs 29 colon something.

  • Good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Patrick May ( 305709 ) on Friday February 03, 2023 @05:18PM (#63263697)
    If a theocracy wants to block a valuable service, that's one more nail in their eventual coffin. Wikipedia (and other online tools) shouldn't help them restrict what their citizens can see.
    • Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gtall ( 79522 ) on Friday February 03, 2023 @05:30PM (#63263725)

      This is even odder than that. Allah is considered so *other* that no one can say anything about her. Yet, Muslims go about claiming things are an insult to Allah. Since no one can ask her, how would they know?

      The escape clause (didn't you just know there had to be one) is that Allah communicates through his angels....to people. That's just peachy. "How do you know that? An angel told me. How do you know it was an angel and not your own brain making shit up? Uh...well, I just know...and you are offending Allah by asking me these questions."

  • Weak God (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Friday February 03, 2023 @05:28PM (#63263717)
    Such a tender and sensitive god, unable to withstand anything, easily offended, and must have his imperfect creation - man, to be certain that god is not offended or get booboo feelings.

    A real god would simply laugh at any criticisms, or smote those who utter blasphemy or apostasy by himself.

    Then again, that god would have to exist, not made up in the minds of weak humans who cannot withstand anything, are easily offended, and get booboo feelings.

    • A real god would simply laugh at any criticisms, or smote those who utter blasphemy or apostasy by himself.

      Exactly what this god does, punish the infidels with bombs, crashed planes and such

      • A real god would simply laugh at any criticisms, or smote those who utter blasphemy or apostasy by himself.

        Exactly what this god does, punish the infidels with bombs, crashed planes and such

        No, those are mere mortals who try to stand up for their powerless gods. In the end, they fail though, because man makes god in his own image, and man is going to fail when trying to impose beliefs on other men who have their own god, made in their own image.

        Religion is merely more woke stuff.

    • A real god would simply laugh at any criticisms, or smote those who utter blasphemy or apostasy by himself.

      The real God does [biblegateway.com] simply laugh. He bides his time though ... and fulfills his promises in surprising ways.

      This "Allah" guy, on the other hand ...

  • It's a testament to political Darwinism that unfree mentalities willingly subvert themselves this way.

    Anyone who believes "ignorance is strength" is playing chicken with a brick wall.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Anyone who believes "ignorance is strength" is playing chicken with a brick wall.

      Hopefully. Although organized religion has a long and bloody history of being willing to do any conceivable evil just to keep its power intact.

      • by Teun ( 17872 )

        I read at +1. I do not see ACs. -- The internet does not make people stupid. It just makes the stupid ones more obvious.

        You sound like a true believer, nothing matters except what others have already approved of.

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          You sound like an asshole that cannot keep their mouth shut even when you have no valid comeback. Incidentally, +1 is the default posting level for non-ACs, but 0 is the one for ACs. But I guess these details fly right over your head.

          • by Teun ( 17872 )
            I don't guess but just see the proof you missed the reason of my comment :)
            Even AC's can post something worth-while.
  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday February 03, 2023 @05:43PM (#63263759)

    Quite frankly, the least I'd expect from an all-powerful entity is that it can at the very least do what any mere mortal can do. Else, why bother worship it if it can't even do what I can do?

    So since that god is obviously not turning Wikipedia off, there's only three possible explanations:

    1. The god doesn't give a fuck, which essentially means you're wasting your time.
    2. The god actually wants that content to exist, which essentially means you're pissing your god off.
    3. The god doesn't exist, which essentially means you're REALLY wasting your time.

    Choose for yourself.

    • 4. God is an aristocrat, prefers peons do the work
      5. God is a middle manager, see 4.
      6. God is a teacher, turning off Wikipedia is the lesson
      7. God is just lazy
      8. God doesn't know how (lost the manual for the Internet)

      Just saying.

      • 9. God likes his followers to remain ignorant
        10. God is overpowered. Can turn off Wikipedia but only by imploding the universe
        11. God is clumsy. Worried he might turn off Pornhub instead
        12. God forgot
        13. God created Wikipedia in the first place
        12. God procrastinates. He was definitely going to do it tomorrow

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        4a. God prefers peons do the work as a demonstration of their loyalty to him (her?).

      • 4 is something where you have no use for that kind of god.
        5, see 4. I already don't have any use for middle management, why elevate the lazy spongers to godhood?
        6 What kind of lesson is this supposed to teach? A lesson should provide information that increases the usefulness or the effectiveness, what exactly does this accomplish?
        7 is another "I have no use for that useless sponger" clause.
        8 violates the omniscience clause for godhood.

    • The god exist, but is neither omniscient, nor omnipotent. So not that powerful.

  • Many articles of the world religions in wikipedia have religious teachings, mythical persons, miracles events stated as facts. WIkipedia needs an enema to flush out all that religious B.S., and to present such things as teachings of a religion.

  • Do we know what content triggered Pakistan's move, after all?
    • by vbdasc ( 146051 )

      Yes. Pictures (artistic, of course) of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in the English language page about Him (the corresponding pages in Pakistan's local languages,like Urdu don't have these pictures). It's a big no-no in Islam and a heinous crime in Pakistan (blasphemy) that would get you a death sentence there, if the vigilantes don't get to you first, with the same end result, while the police is watching.

      • Thank you. These are the two sole relevant posts of this comment section. :)

        P.S. That said there were periods in Islam when depicting their prophet was perfectly ok. These medieval depictions of him did not sprout from the ground by themselves.

  • by Growlley ( 6732614 ) on Friday February 03, 2023 @06:40PM (#63263895)
    they will be as backwards a the fundamentalist religous red states.
    • Don't forget they are nuclear armed.

      Wonder if they found the recipe for nukes in the quran or actually had to follow science, which often contradicts many religions.

  • by piojo ( 995934 ) on Friday February 03, 2023 @09:37PM (#63264143)

    I'm not gonna talk about religion. Instead, politics.

    What was Pakistan's endgame? Are they really blocking Wikipedia just to prevent their populace from reading it? They could not possibly have thought Wikipedia would concede--after all, Wikipedia is a nonprofit and probably doesn't get much donations from a poor (ish) country. Did they think Wikipedia is so liberal that they would concede to autocratic demands just to preserve free access in a poor-ish country? They might have, if the concession were not so great.

    • An authoritarian government needs constant shows of power to keep its subjects obedient. And its enforcers needs to show their leadership they do something and are loyal.

      • by piojo ( 995934 )

        That may be true, but in this case they showed weakness by making a demand that would obviously not be fulfilled.

  • Religion doing what it is best at.
  • It cracks me up (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Saturday February 04, 2023 @12:13AM (#63264325)
    It cracks me up that people believe in booming voices and people in the sky having never seen nor heard booming characters. People are morons.
    • Agreed people are definitely Morans. Our brains only have about 2GB of memory, so I'm told by experts. Some of our tech geniuses are fervently religious. So it's all about simplifying or compressing files. Religion is an easy way to simplify things so more processing power is available for the task at hand. The Arabs have used this system to create successful army's-- and from the infertile perch in the world (that could hardly sustain anyone) they have expanded out --and now influence territory all over th
  • by vbdasc ( 146051 ) on Saturday February 04, 2023 @05:46AM (#63264621)

    it should be considered sacrilegious to make Slashdot submissions based on paywalled articles.

  • Considering that Pakistan is about to go bankrupt or totally sell out to China this is more about âoelook at the birdieâ. Pakistan has no foreign reserves and since the flooding disaster is on the verge of becoming a failed state. It is in really rough shape. Basically the government is desperate for a win, anything will do.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man -- who has no gills. -- Ambrose Bierce

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