Wikipedia Just Got Blocked in China Once Again

ByAmar Shekhar
wikipedia block
wikipedia block

wikipedia-blockShort bytes: In a recent development made in the name of internet security, Wikipedia was blocked once again in China. This is not the first time as Wikipedia was blocked for the first time in 2004 in China. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia is going to have a talk with the Chinese officials over this matter.

This Wednesday, ban on Wikipedia was initiated by the Chinese government in the wake of some technical changes on the Wikipedia website. These technical changes were brought in the Wikipedia’s encryption technique. This means, Chinese officials now cannot monitor the particular pages a specific user is viewing on the web.

Being unable to monitor the online behaviour of a user by not being able to filter out the desired pages, has left Chinese government with “One or None” choice of allowing the whole of Wikipedia in China. Nonetheless, English version of Wikipedia would still be accessible in China. Before this blockade, Wikipedia has already been blocked a few number of times before in China already with the first blockade noted back in 2004.

Jimmy wales, the founder of Wikipedia, will soon be flying to China to discuss the matter of censorship with the officials.

Also Read: Wikipedia Information on Controversial Topics Can Be Misleading

Speaking at the Leadership Energy Summit Asia 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jimmy wales said,

There was a long period of, I would say, equilibrium in which we were broadly accessible in China, all language versions, but certain pages were filtered out, But more recently we’ve taken a step backwards. As of today, Wikipedia is completely blocked in China again. I will be visiting…to meet with the minister to see what we can do about it.

Seems the situation is going to be tougher this time. Jimmy Wales might not have a cake walk talking with the Chinese officials over censorship of Wikipedia again in China. However, we wish Chinese should still have access to this online encyclopaedia and China government should reconsider it’s decision. It’s better for them, It’s better for us and it’s better for humanity.

Add your views about this story in the comments below.

A passionate adventure traveller over Trekkerpedia.com and Author of the book 'The Girl from the Woods'.

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