Dear fellow Wikimedians, Following the violent and deadly repression of student protesters in Bangladesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Bangladesh_quota_reform_movement that has claimed the lives of about 150 people, the Bangladeshi government has shut down the Internet throughout the country. The Internet shutdown began on the 18th of July and remains in place to this day https://mastodon.social/@netblocks/112830348166788483. This has affected access to Wikipedia and other sources of free knowledge. Traffic to the Bangla Wikipedia has dropped to less than half the usual rate https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/bn.wikipedia.org/reading/total-page-views/normal|bar|2024-06-20~2024-07-22|agent~user|daily . Several organizations of the #KeepItOn coalition (which includes the Wikimedia Foundation) have signed an appeal https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/keepiton-restore-internet-during-student-protests-bangladesh/ to the Bangladeshi authorities to restore the Internet. I wish our Wikimedian colleagues a speedy return to their online activities, and most importantly safety in these troubling times. Farah
Dear Farah,
From the Ikusgela https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari:Hezkuntza/Ikusgelaproject, the educational video project of the Basque Wikipedia, we support the #KeepitOn initiative, and we have launched several messages of support on social networks (Mastodon https://mastodon.eus/@Ikusgela/112841264099158559/ X https://x.com/ikusgela/status/1816074993366598014).
This year students from Bangladesh have made translations into Bengali https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:WikiProject_Subtitling_Ikusgelaof the videos on philosophy that we have published. We are very grateful for their efforts and hope that the situation will be reversed.
Best regards. Ander (member of the Ikusgela project).
Hau idatzi du Farah Jack Mustaklem (fjmustak@gmail.com) erabiltzaileak (2024 uzt. 23(a), ar. (16:48)):
Dear fellow Wikimedians, Following the violent and deadly repression of student protesters in Bangladesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Bangladesh_quota_reform_movement that has claimed the lives of about 150 people, the Bangladeshi government has shut down the Internet throughout the country. The Internet shutdown began on the 18th of July and remains in place to this day https://mastodon.social/@netblocks/112830348166788483. This has affected access to Wikipedia and other sources of free knowledge. Traffic to the Bangla Wikipedia has dropped to less than half the usual rate https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/bn.wikipedia.org/reading/total-page-views/normal%7Cbar%7C2024-06-20~2024-07-22%7Cagent~user%7Cdaily . Several organizations of the #KeepItOn coalition (which includes the Wikimedia Foundation) have signed an appeal https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/keepiton-restore-internet-during-student-protests-bangladesh/ to the Bangladeshi authorities to restore the Internet. I wish our Wikimedian colleagues a speedy return to their online activities, and most importantly safety in these troubling times. Farah
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Thanks for bringing this to the mailing list, Farah.
I am the CEE coordinator of Project Korikath. Most of our members are from Bangladesh and are students. We are currently facing difficulties communicating with our Bangladeshi colleagues due to low internet bandwidth and the blocking of major messaging platforms there.
From what I've heard, three Project Korikath members sustained minor injuries. One young Wikimedian from Bangladesh was detained for interrogation a few days ago but was later released. We are particularly concerned about the high school Wikimedians, as they seem to be a major target of law enforcement. Our Bangladeshi colleagues are among the most experienced in ECWO (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Extracurricular_Wikimedia_organizations) practices within the movement, and as a person who leads an ECWO in Greece, the help of Bangladeshi colleagues has been very important on the process of setting up my ECWO.
Additionally, one of our Project Korikath photographers is currently being held unlawfully by the police in Bangladesh. We have issued a statement regarding this matter and are seeking support from the Wikimedia Foundation's human rights team. You can read the statement here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Project_Korikath/statements/July_30,_2024
Nikos Likomitros, regional coordinator for the CEE Region, Project Korikath.
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