Me, viewing banned Wikipedia articles:
Wikipedia article blocked worldwide by Delhi high court.
Submitted 3 days ago by Dot@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Lot of knee jerk reaction here, to the point of not donating and abandoning the greatest collective effort made on the Internet.
The specific suspended page directly relates to an ongoing lawsuit, where WikiMedia is the defendant.
Also, Streisand effect much? :D
LockheedTheDragon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I think this is confusing so tried to understand it and here is what I understand. The Wikipedia page for Asian News International is up. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_News_International And it says things like ANI is the “mouthpiece” of the Indian government. There is a section about the lawsuit and it quotes what ANI didn’t like about it. This is what the lawsuit was first about, but this page and the discussion page are still up as of 27 Oct 2024. The page can’t be modified and given what you can see it looks like there was some editing wars that happened before editing was taken away.
Now about …wikipedia.org/…/Asian_News_International_vs._Wik… The article and discussion page that was taken down is about the ongoing lawsuit. It been replaced with a page saying it was taken down and a link to the actual lawsuit. Which I suggest people read. I do think the Indian government has a point if you read the lawsuit. This is a ongoing lawsuit and the page taken down had info on it and a discussion page where people were talking about the ongoing lawsuit. The lawsuit says that this “…Complicates and compounds the issue at hand.” And if you know anything about lawsuits the first thing people do or are told to do is to shut up about it. This page was really the opposite. I can see why Wikimedia complied.
That the lawsuit happened in the first place is disturbing. But I think Wikimedia replacement page for the ongoing lawsuit is not surprising and reasonable. If they had taken down the main article, now that would be disturbing.
fpslem@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I do think the Indian government has a point if you read the lawsuit. This is a ongoing lawsuit and the page taken down had info on it and a discussion page where people were talking about the ongoing lawsuit. The lawsuit says that this “…Complicates and compounds the issue at hand.”
Hard disagree. Ongoing lawsuits often have complicated issues, but are nonetheless topics of public concern. It’s sometimes inconvenient for governments and large corporations to have the public aware of the lawsuit and the underlying facts and issues, but that’s no reason to impose a gag order.
Frankly, whenever I hear a court give vague rationales like “complicates the issues,” I assume they judge just doesn’t like the criticism. That’s what it sounds like here.
LockheedTheDragon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It is a public concern and any organization/people not a part of the lawsuit can talk and discuss it. Which we are doing. I even used the Wikipedia page we are talking about to discuss the lawsuit since it has the Order is on it. The full lawsuit isn’t on that page, I made a mistake last night.
If there is a ongoing lawsuit that Wikimedia isn’t a part of then they can have a Wikipedia page and discussion going on. That’s their right.
My agreement is with the request in the Order for Wikimedia to not having ongoing discussion about the lawsuit. This isn’t a gag order on everyone, it is just Wikimedia removing the info on the page about the lawsuit. And Wikimedia has info why they removed it and allowing people to read the Order so I think that is Wikimedia saying something without discussing it and it makes the Indian government look bad.
The order mentions more than “complicates the issue” so you might want to read the Order and gives more examples of what you see of their vagueness because it seemed reasonable to me if if I find the lawsuit itself wrong and should not have been allowed.
Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Blocking an article worldwide based on the orders of a single oppressive regime? That settles it, Wikipedia is no longer worth donating to, since they’ve proven they’re willing to bow to this type of thing rather than stand behind the truth.
turtletracks@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
What’s been blocked? Looks like just the ANI vs Wikipedia, but I don’t think that’s abnormal. The ANI page is still up
baduhai@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
Article is still up, I dont really understand this post.
Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Uh… No it isn’t? Like, my dude, did you click the link up there?
h3mlocke@lemm.ee 2 days ago
“That settles it” lmfao this clown MF’er
mlg@lemmy.world 3 days ago
en.wikipedia.org/…/Asian_News_International_vs._W…
wtf???
Why would they even bother to comply, India has no jurisdiction. Plenty of countries have banned wikipedia pages and the entire site before, why did wikimedia have to go out of their way to do it for them globally?
fpslem@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The current Indian government has prosecuted or detained employees of foreign companies in the past for actions taken by the company. There is a real risk here.
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
can’t ban pages anymore with https, and while they don’t want to be lumped in with the authoritarian states that ban all on Wikipedia, they are like them at heart
Sunshine@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Right! It’s so suspicious they did it worldwide.
merde@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
if this 👇 happened in France, than of course that 👆 can happen in India
The DCRI summoned a Wikipedia volunteer in their offices on April 4th [2013]. This volunteer, which was one of those having access to the tools that allow the deletion of pages, was forced to delete the article while in the DCRI offices, on the understanding that he would have been held in custody and prosecuted if he did not comply. Under pressure, he had no other choice than to delete the article, despite explaining to the DCRI this is not how Wikipedia works. He warned the other sysops that trying to undelete the article would engage their responsibility before the law. This volunteer had no link with that article, having never edited it and not even knowing of its existence before entering the DCRI offices. He was chosen and summoned because he was easily identifiable, given his regular promotional actions of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in France.
lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
As a thin veil of excuse, the DCRI incident involved what they considered military secrets rather than defamation charges. Still dumb to do that extrajudicially, of course.
PanArab@lemm.ee 3 days ago
I would expect something like this from my mother country sooner than India. Surprised but not that surprised. The precedent being set is concerning.
Jozav@lemmy.world [bot] 3 days ago
The precedent was years ago with Facebook and WhatsApp blocking alleged anti government messages (which the court branded as anti-nation, sedition). Last year the BBC documentary about Modi and alleged fascism was world news and led to the departure of BBC from India. The problem is that the world sees India as an emerging market where in fact it is a fascist country in the making.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I think nothing can be worse for a news agency than to be called a puppet of an intelligence agency, stooge of the government. If that is true, the credibility goes
So close and yet still missing the point. It’s not that wikipedia says it, it’s that it’s the truth, and we can’t have website showing true facts, something this judge no doubt understands very well (or at least his wallet does)
Frack all of these people, I’m so tired about a few authoritarian narcissists making the world a shit show.
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 3 days ago
How can they block this for everyone?
Dot@feddit.org 3 days ago
The Wikimedia Foundation has suspended access to this page due to an order by the Delhi High Court, without prejudice to the Foundation’s rights. We are pursuing all available legal options.
SassyRamen@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This just makes me want to see it more.
pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 3 days ago
Also, how can they sue a company based in another country.
merde@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
i’m guessing that it must be like Xitter in Brazil. If a company is present in a country, they may require a legal representation which can be held accountable.
merde@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
it’s more of a blackmail. Wikipedia could have kept the article online for everybody but they would have deprived 1,5 billion people in India of the whole Wikipedia.
The judge on the case stated “If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India… We will ask government to block your site”.
On 21 October, the Wikimedia Foundation suspended access to the article for Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation due to an order from the court.
sag@lemm.ee 3 days ago
WTF
merde@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
the list of countries you will be leaving is long ☞ sh.itjust.works/post/27190154
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Huh, it turns out that there’s a 100% overlap in that list with countries I don’t want to live in.
Jozav@lemmy.world [bot] 3 days ago
You should leave anyway if you have a chance. Germany looking for 70.000 skilled Indians.
just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Germany wants the immigrant but i don’t think young germans want that. Look at the recent rise of AFD among young germans. Maybe they need immigrants so when the economy goes down they can blame it on immigrants
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This is pretty big news, I would think it would be relevant in way more than just one article, time to do some updating.
Sunshine@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Shame on Wikipedia for taking down the article!
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 days ago
which article did they take down? As other posters have noted the ANI page is still up, they took down the wiki page for the ongoing lawsuit which is common practice for.lawsuits.
h3mlocke@lemm.ee 2 days ago
Shame on Sunshine for not reading!
Mandy@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that India wants to ban free flipping knowledge
Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 3 days ago
Seems like a good opportunity to remind folks about the Kiwix project, which allows you to download local private copies of select information such as Wikipedia. It was originally created to provide offline access to content for countries that were otherwise blocked, but events like this have sparked some recent discussion about archiving older files to preserve history.
reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Hahaha go ahead and block it you dumb fucks, only your citizenry will suffer.
veniasilente@lemm.ee 3 days ago
So, lemme get this straight: Wikipedia is being censored (worldwide, might I add) because a party complains that they are reported of as being accused of a thing, or because of the thing itself?
Jozav@lemmy.world [bot] 3 days ago
Follow the case here: delhihighcourt.nic.in/…/dhc_case_status_list_new?…
Eideen@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Why not allow India to block Wikipedia? Or have a filter that hides Indians dark secrets, when coming from India.
Valmond@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Because it’s the government of india that wants to block wikipedia for Indian citizens.
clifton@friendica.world 3 days ago
endofline@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Has anybody a mirror? Couldn’t they just block it in India for Indians?
UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Fuck the Indian state and its enablers.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
Yeah. India is pretty much a piece of shit country. Their government seems really corrupt and they pollute like mad while they still have so much of their busted caste system in place. All while being racist as hell.
tatterdemalion@programming.dev 2 days ago
Cognitive dissonance much?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
That really depends on the region, and it’s more a cultural thing than an actual construct. A large chunk of the country doesn’t meaningfully follow the caste system.
Source: Indian colleagues from various parts of the country.