Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2015/Programme/Lightning/Short block of Wikipedia in Russia

Title of your proposal

Name(s) and/or username(s)

Vladimir Medeyko / User:Drbug, Stanislav Kozlovskiy / User:Ctac

Type of submission (Please choose one)

• Lightning talk

Summary

We'll describe the event of short block of Wikipedia in Russia, and how it was handled.

On August 25, 2015 Wikipedia was blocked in Russia for several hours. It caused enormous public outcry. The Russian community and Wikimedia RU had a strong position: Wikipedia is but a mirror, which reflects the encyclopedic knowledge, accumulated by mankind in the form of open reputable publications and resources materials (not just those placed on the Internet, but necessarily publicly available and those considered authoritative in their category). Wikipedia does not assume responsibility for creating new knowledge or trying to distinguish the "right" from the "wrong" – in this matter Wikipedia relies entirely on the sources. If reputable sources - academic, governmental, international, news and the like - contain information that meets the encyclopedic format, this information get considered as worth presenting to the readers.

We tried to persuade the regulator that that the position of the Russian legislator is similar – not the dissemination of whatever information as such is prohibited, but only a distribution that includes the promotion of harmful acts or other unfair actions. And we pointed that the article in question had been heavily edited, and so was based on academic sources.

Meanwhile, the project was preparing to the blocking, publishing information how to circumvent blocking.

Finally, the regulator complied the court direct ruling, blocking Wikipedia, but soon unblocked it, apparently agreeing our position, and stating that the court ruling is no more actual.

Preliminary preparation (if necessary)

No

Expected outcomes

The listeners should obtain better undertanding of the Wikimedia movement values and how it protect them

Duration (without Q&A)

10 minutes

Specific requirements

Slides or further information

-To be uploaded-

Interested attendees (Please add yourself, and you may indicate your questions to the presenter).