Censorship of Wikipedia articles in Russia since 2015
Banner on Russian Wikipedia, 24 and 25 August 2015
Wikipedia has started to be blocked in Russia. Find out what to do before it's too late.
The free online encyclopedia Wikipedia was briefly blocked in Russia in August 2015. Some articles from Wikipedia were included in various censorship lists disseminated by the government. Further threats to block were made following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On 1 November 2012, the provisions concerning a unified register of domain names and URLs containing prohibited information came into force.[1] A Unified Register of Prohibited Sites was created.
Within three years of the adoption of the law, more than 25 Russian Wikipedia articles, mainly about drugs and suicide, entered the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites.[2][3][4] Most of these articles, after some time, were removed from the register. However, on 24 August 2015, there was a short blocking of Wikipedia in Russia.[5]
2022 threat to block
Banner used in March 2022
Wikipedia may be blocked in Russia over an article about the invasion of Ukraine. Find out what to do →
On 1 March 2022, Roskomnadzor, the Russian agency for monitoring and censoring mass media, wrote to the Wikimedia Foundation asking for the removal of the article "Вторжение России на Украину (2022)" ('Russian invasion of Ukraine') on the United States-hosted Russian Wikipedia. The agency threatened to block access to the site, claiming that the article contained "illegally distributed information" including "reports about numerous casualties among service personnel of the Russian Federation and also the civilian population of Ukraine, including children".[6][7]
On 18 May 2022, Roskomnadzor demanded to remove articles about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the term "Rashism" from the English Wikipedia.[13]
On 31 March 2022, Russian media censorship agency Roskomnadzor threatened to fine Wikimedia up to 4 million rubles (about US$49,000) if it did not delete information about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that is "misinforming" Russians.[14]
In April–May 2022, the Russian authorities put several Wikipedia articles on their list of forbidden sites. The list included the articles on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and Rashism,[15] several articles on Russian Wikipedia devoted to military action and war crimes during the Russo-Ukrainian War,[16] and two sections of the Russian article about Vladimir Putin.[17]
On July 20, due to the refusal of Wikipedia to remove the articles about the Russo-Ukrainian war, Roskomnadzor ordered search engines to mark Wikipedia as a violator of Russian laws.[18][19]
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