Russia Threatens To Block Wikipedia Over Article With Ukraine War Casualties

Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor has demanded censorship on an article listing on Wikipedia stating Russian military casualties as well as Ukrainian civilians and children.

Russia Threatens To Block Wikipedia Over Article With Ukraine War Casualties/Getty

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia, the latter has threatened to block Wikipedia in case it does not delete what it calls "false information", the media has reported. Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor has demanded censorship on an article listing on Wikipedia stating Russian military casualties as well as Ukrainian civilians and children and has deemed it false.

Roskomnadzor is also threatening to block all of Wikipedia in Russia. Responding to the demand, Wikimedia Foundation has issued a statement that read: "The information available on Wikipedia is sourced and shared by volunteers who invest time and effort to ensure that the content is fact-based and reliable. Many continue to do so in adverse circumstances: As the invasion continues, Ukrainian volunteers have continued to add content and make edits to Wikipedia, even in face of deep hardship."

The Russian regulator's demand was posted on Russian Wikipedia’s Telegram channel, and had demanded Wikimedia address user edits from a February 27th version of the article. As translated by Wikimedia Russia, it takes issue with an article that has “information" of Russian military casualties as well as the civilian population of Ukraine, including children.

"Tuesday’s takedown request threatened censorship. Denying people access to reliable information, at a time of crisis, can have life-altering consequences. We join Wikimedia Russia, the independent Russia-based Wikimedia affiliate and the broader community of Russian Wikipedia volunteers in defending the right of volunteers to continue their diligent work of editing Wikipedia with the most up-to-date and reliable information available related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine," Wikimedia Foundation added.

According to a report by Input, Russian authorities have previously sent a number of complaints about Wikipedia pages.