Online Encyclopedia Wikipedia Is No Longer Welcome In China

The Chinese Government has made a decision to block Wikipedia from operating in the country.

On May 4, a global observation network called Open Observatory of Network reported that the free online encyclopedia’s ban had been extended to include not only its Chinese version but also other available languages.

On May 14, BBC News received confirmation from the Wikimedia Foundation that the Wikipedia was indeed banned in China. This means that for Chinese citizens, it is completely illegal to access one of the most comprehensive sources of information on the internet.

According to what Wikimedia told BBC News, the ban surprised the foundation as it had not been informed by the Chinese government about the banning plans.

In a statement sent to BBC News, Wikimedia wrote:

It has always been known that the Chinese government has been trying to control and monitor what its citizens get access to online but ever since President Xi Jinping’s 2012 election, the internet censorship efforts of the nation have increased considerably.

Today, certain words cannot even be used online. Wikipedia is just one of about 10,000 sites that are banned. The list includes BBC News, Facebook, Google Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Similar to China, the Turkish authorities also banned Wikipedia and a list of several other domain names including WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The ban came after Wikipedia refused to take down content accusing Turkey of supporting terrorist groups.

At that time, Samantha Lien, communications manager of Wikimedia Foundation said:

At the time of this article, the ban is still in effect.