[Wikimedia-l] French intelligency agency forces removal of a Wikipedia article

[Fred Bauder]

Somehow it is important... Streisand effect writ large. Unless somehow it
was just a mixup, or a deliberate attempt to put a false target forward.

Fred

> This is seeming a little silly; it's just a big communications station.
>  It's got huge radio towers and is very visible on the skyline for a
> distance.  It's got a civilian radio/TV tower colocated with it.
>
> I can't see what would be sensitive in the article..
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Typical. They were not willing to tell our legal counsel why or what
>> was
>> classified; she, of course, has no French security clearance; now it is
>> spread all over an administrators noticeboard, and restored.
>>
>> They weren't wrong but neither is our legal counsel or the users; so
>> "fell between the cracks." Hopefully the matter was not too important;
>> I'm sure we have enough money to pay for relocating the facility to a
>> secure location.
>>
>> Fred
>>
>> > This is where the discussion is happening on-wiki:
>> >
>> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Bulletin_des_administrateurs#Secret_d.C3.A9fense
>> >
>> >
>> > On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 10:52 AM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hard to know what was involved from the information you provide. The
>> problem is there is classified information that amounts to nothing and
>> then there is classified information release of which can cause
>> serious damage. Defiance will eventually result in serious trouble.
>> Not that we should knuckle under to nonsense.
>> >>
>> >> Fred
>> >>
>> >> > Hi there,
>> >> > I guess you might be interested to hear that Direction Centrale du
>> Renseignement Intérieur (Central Directorate of Interior
>> >> Intelligence,
>> >> > DCRI), a French intelligence agency that reports directly to the
>> Ministry of the Interior, has apparently forced a French Wikipedia
>> administrator to delete an article that in their opinion—as I
>> understand it—revelead classified information deemed very harmful
>> >> to
>> >> > the French national defence ("compromission du secret de la
>> Défense
>> nationale").
>> >> >
>> >> > Interestingly, they contacted the WMF legal team with a request to
>> remove (delete? suppress?) this article a couple of weeks before
>> >> that,
>> >> > but were refused after failing to provide further information on
>> why
>> the article should be removed (in the words of a Foundation legal
>> counsel).
>> >> >
>> >> > Undounted by that, they approached the said administrator — who
>> operates under his real name, so I guess it was pretty easy to track
>> him — and asked him to delete this article, a request which he
>> obliged. (The article has since been restored by a different
>> >> > administrator). As far as I understand, the version of the article
>> they wanted to have deleted was
>> >> > <https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=81104004>.
>> >> >
>> >> > I guess that when an intelligence agency asks their citizen to
>> remove information from Wikipedia citing the penal code (article
>> 413-11 of the French penal code in this case), it is something worth
>> sharing
>> >> (no
>> >> > harm intended).
>> >> >
>> >> > Further reading in English:
>> >> > * <https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=91703508>
>> *
>> <https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=91705235>
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > Tomasz W. Kozłowski
>> >> > a.k.a. [[user:odder]]
>> >> >
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>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > Matthew Roth
>> > Global Communications Manager
>> > Wikimedia Foundation
>> > +1.415.839.6885 ext 6635
>> > www.wikimediafoundation.org
>> > *https://donate.wikimedia.org*
>> >
>>
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>
>
> --
> -george william herbert
> george.herbert at gmail.com
>