Russia has once again asked Wikipedia to censor the encyclopedic page dedicated to the war in Ukraine. “We will not give in to their blackmail,” says the foundation.
Wikipedia in the crosshairs of the Russian authorities. The online encyclopedia risks a $50,000 fine and could be blacked out in the event of further ‘transgressions’. The authorities did not like the encyclopedia’s account of the war in Ukraine .
Roskomnadzor has formally admonished the WikimediaFoundation . Wikipedia is managed by volunteer editors, who however must adhere to a strict guide that regulates how to create and update individual pages.
In early March, a Wikimedia Foundation representative explained that Russian authorities had tried to persuade site administrators to remove some information from the Russian-language page dedicated to the military invasion of Ukraine. In particular, Roskomnadzor has requested that the information on the number of Russian soldiers killed in the conflict – as well as civilian casualties – be changed. Numbers not appreciated by the Kremlin, which since the beginning of the war has never communicated data on soldiers who died in service in clear and transparent terms.
Last March, the Wikimedia Foundation, based in San Francisco, announced that it did not want to give in to “Moscow’s blackmail”, adding that it would not comply with the request to censor the encyclopedic page on the war in Ukraine.
Russian laws – explains Forbes – forbid even speaking of an ‘invasion’ against Ukraine. The same laws also prohibit the circulation of information that could diminish or vilify the honor of Russian soldiers employed in the conflict.
