[Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia goes on strike
Yaroslav M. Blanter
putevod at mccme.ru
Thu Jul 12 17:48:38 UTC 2012
On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:34:46 -0400, Nathan wrote:
> Is there a "service provider" exemption for entities like Wikimedia
> in
> Russia?
Not that I know of.
Is it possible that making the Russian Wikipedia inaccessible for a
> period in order to protest a Russian law might be considered
> political
> activism in Russia?
Legally, no, it is not political activism. From the point of view of
having good relation with the authorities, this, of course, complicates
things.
I don't believe the WMF itself has any assets in
> Russia, but it seems like that wouldn't prevent the Russian
> authorities
> from taking steps against the Foundation if the Russian Wikipedia
> community
> decides to take steps like this again.
>
Formally, they can shut down access to Russian Wikipedia on November 1.
In reality, I doubt very much they are going to do it. I do not see what
they can gain, and the public opinion, however weak, will not approve
it.
> What about other countries? If the Arabic Wikipedia decides to
> protest laws
> in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, or the Chinese Wikipedia against the PRC,
> etc.,
> has anyone at the Foundation evaluated if there are any risks
> involved or
> potential repercussions?
I guess in this case nobody asked the Foundation beforehand. And I
think the fact that nobody from wm.ru cared to show up here to provide
info and answer questions (Victoria and myself are not members and none
of us is a Russian resident, though I am a Russian citizen and was
flying from Russia just last weekend) is in my opinion very illustrative
in this respect.
But indeed a good question is would it be for instance a good idea to
blackout Chinese Wikipedia to protest the firewall. My opinion is no. It
would expose a number of people to immediate danger without any obviousl
benefits, since the probability that the blackout can change anything is
increasingly low.
Cheers
Yaroslav
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