Russia threatens to block Wikipedia over cannabis page
Wikipedia features on its own list of 'what's been censored in Russia'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Russian government has threatened to ban Wikipedia over a page explaining charas, a hashish type of cannabis.
Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin's internet watchdog, has reportedly written to Wikipedia's administrators saying it will be ban the website in its entirety unless the entry - which basically provides a recipe - is removed.
According to Meduza, which calls itself 'the real Russia Today', Roskomnadzor has issued a statement: "In the event that Wikipedia refuses to comply with the court's ruling, [we] will block the webpage on Russia territory using th registry of illegal information."
The agency explains that it can't just block the one page because of the way Wikipedia's security settings work: "In this case, insofar as Wikipedia has decided to function on the basis of https, which doesn't allow restricting to individual pages on its site, the entire website would be blocked."
Apparently a court in the city of Astrakhan ruled earlier this year that the page should be blocked, which would make this the first time a Russian court has banned Wikipedia content.
But this type of internet censorship is not without precedent in Russia, with the Roskomnadzor briefly banning Reddit earlier this month, similarly over drug-related content.
It also outlawed memes earlier this year.
Wikipedia features on the Wikipedia page devoted to 'Internet censorship in Russia' — it says that "as of August 2015, over 25 Wikipedia articles remain blocked in Russia, mostly related to drugs and suicide".
Fortunately, last year Russia began building its own Wikipedia-like site.
We've asked Wikipedia for a comment and will update if and when we get a response
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments