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Wikipedia Censorship The Internet

Russia Clones Wikipedia, Censors It, Bans Original (404media.co) 243

Jules Roscoe reports via 404 Media: Russia has replaced Wikipedia with a state-sponsored encyclopedia that is a clone of the original Russian Wikipedia but which conveniently has been edited to omit things that could cast the Russian government in poor light. Real Russian Wikipedia editors used to refer to the real Wikipedia as Ruwiki; the new one is called Ruviki, has "ruwiki" in its url, and has copied all Russian-language Wikipedia articles and strictly edited them to comply with Russian laws. The new articles exclude mentions of "foreign agents," the Russian government's designation for any person or entity which expresses opinions about the government and is supported, financially or otherwise, by an outside nation. [...]

Wikimedia RU, the Russian-language chapter of the non-profit that runs Wikipedia, was forced to shut down in late 2023 amid political pressure due to the Ukraine war. Vladimir Medeyko, the former head of the chapter who now runs Ruviki, told Novaya Gazeta Europe in July that he believed Wikipedia had problems with "reliability and neutrality." Medeyko first announced the project to copy and censor the 1.9 million Russian-language Wikipedia articles in June. The goal, he said at the time, was to edit them so that the information would be "trustworthy" as a source for all Russian users. Independent outlet Bumaga reported in August that around 110 articles about the war in Ukraine were missing in full, while others were severely edited. Ruviki also excludes articles about reports of torture in prisons and scandals of Russian government representatives. [...]

Graphic designer Constantine Konovalov calculated the number of characters changed between Wikipedia RU and Ruviki articles on the same topics, and found that there were 205,000 changes in articles about freedom of speech; 158,000 changes in articles about human rights; 96,000 changes in articles about political prisoners; and 71,000 changes in articles about censorship in Russia. He wrote in a post on X that the censorship was "straight out of a 1984 novel." Interestingly, the Ruviki article about George Orwell's 1984 entirely omits the Ministry of Truth, which is the novel's main propaganda outlet concerned with governing "truth" in the country.

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Russia Clones Wikipedia, Censors It, Bans Original

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  • Cassandra complex (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @02:30AM (#64434842)

    ... omits the Ministry of Truth

    "1984", after being un-banned in 1988, became the most popular book in 2022 (about the time of the Ukrainian invasion), so the people who want the truth already have it. To them, it's probably a story about the Cassandra Complex: The futility of knowing the truth.

  • by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @02:32AM (#64434850)

    Russia lapsed in 1922 when it merged itself into the USSR. The mold that grew up on the remnants of the former RSFSR isn't Russia, it is a failed attempt at Soviet Union 2.0.

    I would be very surprised if it turns out better than the original.

    • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @03:13AM (#64434908) Journal

      Better than the USSR is a pretty low bar. Would Putin even make the front cover of "fascist dictator monthly" magazine? He's hardly killed anyone compared to Stalin.

    • by vbdasc ( 146051 )

      Second time might be a charm, though. Or not. First attempt was based on Bolshevik communism, second attempt will be based on Chinese-type pseudo-"communism" (state-monopolistic capitalism in disguise). Authoritarianism will be the same as the original, of course.

    • It was always the same spirit in different forms - the Russian culture and history have shown to be utterly refractory to modern concepts of democracy, freedom of thought and social justice.
  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @02:36AM (#64434858)

    (Orwell, on being a Historian Prophet)”Oh for fucks sake, it was supposed to be a work of fiction. Not a bible, you idiots.”

  • With various home grown alternatives without mentions of a certain fictional bear. In fact they are even planning to replace that with a chatbot which only toes the party line.
  • Yes, well... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Budenny ( 888916 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @03:02AM (#64434890)

    It is of course different if its done by a state agent acting on behalf of state censorship.

    But Wikipedia in English is heavily censored and rewritten by activists, presumably acting as individuals or loose associations of them. Try expressing sketpicism on Wikipedia about whether there is a climate emergency and whether wind and solar are the solution, or part of it. If your entry lasts 24 hours that will be a miracle. So don't get too enthusiastic and complacent about the English version either.

    As for the impulse to censor (and indeed criminalize) speech, the recent tendency in the English speaking world to criminalize something called 'hate speech' has quite strikingly, as expected, moved increasingly into attempts to criminalize dissent from a given approved line.

    The latest and most striking example of this is the Scottish Hate Crime and Public Order Act. The Scottish government's own account of this is that

    "New measures to tackle the harm caused by hatred and prejudice come into force today".

    You notice the objective: to tackle the harm caused by hatred and prejudice. Not to tackle the harm that can be done from acting on hatred and prejudice, the aim is not to penalize that. Its to tackle the thing itself, hatred. Also prejudice. Good luck with that!

    There is a BBC summary here, pretty reasonable account:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/art... [bbc.co.uk]

    The result of this was that the day it came into force, the calls starting coming in, and in the first week reached 8,000.

    The question of course is what is "hatred and prejudice". In Scotland it appears to include doubting that men can be turned into women. In English universities it can apparently include expressing skepticism about veganism while on the phone in one's own room, but unknowingly being overheard from the room next door:

    https://freespeechunion.org/un... [freespeechunion.org]

    In the English speaking world we do not have the kind of officially sanctioned censorship and penalization of some kinds of speech that the post cites in Russia. There is of course something similar in China. And in the US at least there is the Consititutional protection of the First Amendment.

    But a similar role is being played now by the small army of zealots in the English speaking countries who define disagreement as hate, and vilify and target anyone publicly dissenting from the party line. And by 'target' is meant attempts to drive people out of their place of employment (the Guardian is notorious for this) or calling the police who then will record the accusation as a non-criminal hate incident.

    Harry Miller for instance (obviously a Monty Python fan) received such a visit after tweeting:

    âoeI was assigned Mammal at Birth, but my orientation is Fish. Donâ(TM)t mis species me.â Miller also tweeted: âoeTranswomen are women. Anyone know where this new biological classification was first proposed and adopted?â. He later wrote that the statement was âoebollocksâ."

    https://www.theguardian.com/so... [theguardian.com]

    So don't sit there reading about barbaric and authoritarian Russia and think that everything in the West is hunky dory. It isn't. It happens through different mechanisms, but it still is happening.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by vbdasc ( 146051 )

      But Wikipedia in English is heavily censored and rewritten by activists, presumably acting as individuals or loose associations of them. Try expressing sketpicism on Wikipedia about whether there is a climate emergency and whether wind and solar are the solution, or part of it. If your entry lasts 24 hours that will be a miracle. So don't get too enthusiastic and complacent about the English version either.

      Note that Wikipedia is a private organization with its own rules, and happens to be leftist-liberal-oriented, in MAGA parlance. Nobody stops you from making your own copy of Wikipedia with your own theories about climate change included.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        e.g. Conservapedia
      • by Budenny ( 888916 )

        "Nobody stops you from making your own copy of Wikipedia with your own theories about climate change"

        I think you're missing the point. The aim to prevent or deter the expression of some ideas is widespread in the West. It also is increasingly successful in recent decades. How this aim is realized, who has the aim and the power to realize it, are different in Western societies because their institutions are different, and so the aim is tried for and achieved in different ways.

        When looking at societies its

      • >"Note that Wikipedia is a private organization with its own rules, "

        True. Now imagine how much even worse sites like this would be with the government stepping in to declare what is "truth" or not. Well, we don't have to imagine it, Russia is a perfect example.

        >"and happens to be leftist-liberal-oriented"

        Leftist, yes.

        Liberal, not really. True [classical] liberals would welcome and expose all sides of arguments and having such arguments. That no longer really occurs on Wikipedia. Just about every

    • by Brama ( 80257 )

      > Try expressing sketpicism on Wikipedia

      You're doing it wrong if that's what you're trying to do.

    • Where does Wikipedia say that wind and solar are the entire solution to global warming?
    • Is the west perfect? No! There is plenty to improve.

      Try living in Russia and telling Putin how he's doing badly. You might find yourself accidently falling out of a very high window twice just to be sure.

      Pretty big difference IMO

      anyhow, I see your quoted a source which quoted the Torygraph, the daily fail and the one even worse, GB News. That had about as much veracity as saying "so the angry bigot down the pub told me".

      Is it true? Maybe, maybe not, but so far there's no evidence or credible source. Maybe y

      • Old joke: Freedom of speech is the same in Moscow and Washington. In both places you can go into the marketplace and yell at the top of your lungs "The US president is a moron" without getting arrested.

    • Wikipedia does not claim that wind and solar are the sole solutions to climate change, a thing youâ(TM)ve made up in your head. They also have plenty of information about climate change denialism, while noting that there is a near complete lack of scientific evidence supporting their viewpoint. Itâ(TM)s an encyclopedia after all, not a catalog of gut feelings.

    • Try expressing sketpicism on Wikipedia

      Skepticism in the old fashion sense or in the "I heard on YouTube and Xitter that it's totally different and they don't let me say it" sense?

    • Re:Yes, well... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @09:49AM (#64435722)

      It is of course different if its done by a state agent acting on behalf of state censorship.

      But Wikipedia in English is heavily censored and rewritten by activists, presumably acting as individuals or loose associations of them. Try expressing sketpicism on Wikipedia about whether there is a climate emergency and whether wind and solar are the solution, or part of it. If your entry lasts 24 hours that will be a miracle. So don't get too enthusiastic and complacent about the English version either.

      So Wikipedia editors not entertaining your alternative science is totally like censorship by a fascist dictator.

      The Scottish government's own account of this is that

      "New measures to tackle the harm caused by hatred and prejudice come into force today".

      You notice the objective: to tackle the harm caused by hatred and prejudice. Not to tackle the harm that can be done from acting on hatred and prejudice, the aim is not to penalize that. Its to tackle the thing itself, hatred. Also prejudice. Good luck with that!

      I agree that hate speech laws can go overboard, though you're looking at a bunch of outlier incidents.

      The question of course is what is "hatred and prejudice". In Scotland it appears to include doubting that men can be turned into women. In English universities it can apparently include expressing skepticism about veganism while on the phone in one's own room, but unknowingly being overheard from the room next door:

      Sounds messed up but all we have is the student's account and nothing from the University.

      And by 'target' is meant attempts to drive people out of their place of employment (the Guardian is notorious for this) or calling the police who then will record the accusation as a non-criminal hate incident.

      Harry Miller for instance (obviously a Monty Python fan) received such a visit after tweeting:

      âoeI was assigned Mammal at Birth, but my orientation is Fish. Donâ(TM)t mis species me.â Miller also tweeted: âoeTranswomen are women. Anyone know where this new biological classification was first proposed and adopted?â. He later wrote that the statement was âoebollocksâ."

      https://www.theguardian.com/so... [theguardian.com]

      From your link:
      Police officers unlawfully interfered with a man’s right to freedom of expression by turning up at his place of work to speak to him about allegedly “transphobic” tweets, the high court has ruled.

      So your example is literally the courts saying the police were out of bounds.

      So don't sit there reading about barbaric and authoritarian Russia and think that everything in the West is hunky dory. It isn't. It happens through different mechanisms, but it still is happening.

      Yeah, the hate speech laws can go too far. But HOLY SHIT IT'S WAY WORSE IN RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I'm waiting for your followup post where you use a story about someone's gunshot wound to complain about your splinter.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @03:31AM (#64434936)

    ... about the invention of quatro-triticale?

  • by TheNameOfNick ( 7286618 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @03:51AM (#64434976)

    *shrugs* Minor inconvenience on the road to WW3 just because another small man wants to feel big.

  • by Eunomion ( 8640039 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @04:30AM (#64435032)
    Every single thing about it is wrong. It's like the concentrated sewer sludge of humanity's worst instincts and ideas, and to me that spells "embargo."

    It's not even a real nation, just a Muscovite empire. That one single city has inflicted unimaginable horror in all directions for over a century.

    Shut it off from the world with the sole criterion for ending it being the dissolution of the Russian Federation.
  • by 2TecTom ( 311314 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @04:56AM (#64435056) Homepage Journal

    here the upper class just bought up all the newspapers and now we only see classist articles

    how is it any different? the rich and powerful are making the rules

    welcome to our plutocracy

  • by qaz123 ( 2841887 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @04:56AM (#64435058)
    the truth is that:
    a) Wikipedia still works in Russia and people actively use it
    b) Very few in Russia know about Ruvki
  • The US is going to ban TikTok because it's a foreign company from a country that is not a US ally. If Google, Facebook, Twitter(X), Wikipedia and so forth were not under the US jurisdiction, the US would try to find a way either to control them or ban them
  • Just writing headlines for the future.

  • Just go in and add everything that has been removed.
  • "Ignorance is king. Many would not profit by his abdication. Many enrich themselves by means of his dark monarchy. They are his Court, and in his name they defraud and govern, enrich themselves and perpetuate their power. Even literacy they fear, for the written word is another channel of communication that might cause their enemies to become united. Their weapons are keen-honed, and they use them with skill. They will press the battle upon the world when their interests are threatened, and the violence whi

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