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Technology Lifestyle The Great Wikipedia Wall of China comes tumbling down
Technology Lifestyle The Great Wikipedia Wall of China comes tumbling down | The Great Wikipedia Wall of China comes tumbling down |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Friday, 17 November 2006 | |
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Of course, you already know that site is Wikipedia, and ever since the government ordered blockage of access in October 2005, only the privileged few in high places had a hope in hell of accessing Wikipedia’s vast store of mostly accurate information (with notable exceptions as has been reported in the press a number of times over the past couple of years). It’s the secret fear of any web company, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a western company, or a Chinese one. Witness ‘Baidu.com’, China’s homegrown equivalent to Google, having entries on their own challenger to Wikipedia known as the ‘Baidupedia’, launched a few months after the Wikipedia shutdown, heavily censored by the Chinese government, with that censorship still reportedly in place today. But unlike Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, who have publicly admitted colluding with the Chinese Government to block results and ferret out ‘persons of interest’, Wikipedia claim that access to their site was restored by negotiation only. Of course, a quick check for information on Tiananmen Square and the world famous events that took place there over a decade ago will show the truth of that claim, but not being in China, it’s impossible for me to check right now, although since I've written this report, others have confirmed that Tiananmen Square is still a taboo subject on Wikipedia in China meaning that some topics are still censored. To see how this affects Google’s results, check out the US version of their images.google.com site with the request for Tiananmen Square over here. Now take a look at the Chinese version of Google’s images search with the same request, and the results are instant and obvious. But despite all of that, Wikipedia is back in China at last, first partly opened up again on Friday the 10th of November, with full access seemingly restored on Monday the 13th. Reports indicate that over 1000 users are registering on the site each day, with a total of 1200 registered for November the 12th alone, with each new user eager to reach the information within, add their own content and corrections and truly become part of the global Wikipedia community. A Chinese blogger, reporting on the re-opening of the site, claimed that the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, and other Chinese users had put forth the view to the government that Wikipedia was a neutral entity, without any activist or subversive agendas. He claimed that the Chinese authorities must have believed this, albeit after a year, and allowed Wikipedia to come back online. And while China continues to block other sites, and other forms of ‘harmful content’ such as pornography and the Falun Gong organisation, humanity’s drive towards openness and freedom continues accelerating forward, even in a so-called communist country such as China that’s increasingly only communist in name, and ruling party, although the Government clearly still has a very iron fist and will no doubt continue using it whenever it wants to. Nevertheless, Wikipedia is back in action in the world’s most populous country. With over 120 million Chinese Internet users re-granted access to Wikipedia, that’s got to be a very good thing. {moscomment}
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