[Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia goes on strike

[Andreas Kolbe]

On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 12:23 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru>wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:22:12 +0100, Thomas Morton wrote:
>
>> On 9 July 2012 20:41, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  In less than half an hour Russian Wikipedia will go on one-day strike
>>> against SOPA/PIPA-like law in Russia [1] (in Russian).
>>>
>>>
>> Unless I am missing something key; whilst this is a crappy law, it is not
>> much like SOPA/PIPA in that it doesn't seem to threaten the existence of
>> Russian Wikipedia.
>>
>> Comparatively; when some ISPs in the UK blacklisted The Pirate Bay at the
>> behest of the government we didn't black Wikipedia out over it.
>>
>>
> Ok, let me may be provide a bit of a background.
>
> 1) The law is formally directed against child pornography, drug
> trafficking, hate between religions etc. The idea is that every website
> (whatever it means) where information violating the law has been discovered
> will get a one-day notice to remove the info, and if it fails to do so, the
> access to the whole website will be blocked by all providers legally
> operating in Russia. On paper, nothing in this law threats Wikipedia and
> sister projects.
>
> 2) There is no political freedom in Russia, and courts are not
> independent. Therefore many people are afraid that once the law is in force
> (tomorrow it must be voted in the second hearing, and the third hearing in
>  September is typically automatic) that it may become an instrument for
> central and local authorities to shut down access to internet sites at will
> claiming they advertise something listed in the law. Russian Wikipedia is
> not the only organization which raised such objections; another is for
> instance the Presidential Council on Hyman Rights (the suggestions of this
> council are typically get ignored despite its affiliation with the
> president), or the National Broadcasters Associations.
>
> 3) It is widely expected that the protest is going to be completely
> ignored. Indeed, the blackout has been reported in media, with both the
> minister of telecommunications and the vice-speaker of parliament
> explaining that the law has no threat for Wikipedia, and will not be
> amended.
>
> 4) The discussion on Russian Wikipedia was initiated yesterday morning by
> Stanislav Kozlovsky, the executive director of wm.ru. (He never wrote
> anything in his wm.ru role, and I believe the chapter was not involved in
> any way). First nothing happened, but in the late evening there was the
> blackout suggestion coming. Eventually, around 10pm it was transferred into
> a RFC, which was closed at 11pm since the number of votes for the blackout
> was clearly exceeding the votes against the blackout. No attempt was made
> top analyze the arguments, it was just a hasty majority decision. From what
> I know, no consultations with external parties were held. In contrast to
> the en.wp blackout, the mobile version of ru.wp is available now.
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav



Thanks. The Guardian seems to be first out the door with its coverage:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/10/russian-wikipedia-shut-down-protest

They link to this article for further background:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/kremlin-purge-russia-internet-western-influences?intcmp=239