Main page of the Russian Wikipedia. Wikipedia: Bill No. 89417-6 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russian-language Wikipedia will be shut down on July 10 by decision of the community as a protest against the proposed amendments to the Information Law, which are being discussed that day in the State Duma of the Russian Federation (the lower house of parliament). These amendments could become the basis for real Internet censorship — the creation of a list of banned websites and IP addresses, followed by their filtering. Lobbyists and activists supporting these amendments claim that they are aimed solely at content such as child pornography "and similar things," but implementing the provisions and wording now under discussion would lead to the creation in Russia of an equivalent to the "Great Firewall of China." Russia's existing law enforcement practice suggests a high likelihood of the worst-case scenario, in which access to Wikipedia could soon be blocked across the entire country. On July 10, the bill is undergoing its second reading in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The amendments will come into force after the third reading, the date of which has not yet been set. You can help us by: spreading the word, drafting an appeal to deputies of the 6th State Duma. http[://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%8F:%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82_%E2%84%96_89417-6 The Kremlezhuliki (a derogatory blend meaning roughly "Kremlin crooks") have realized that paid commenters and armies of bots will not help them in their "ideological struggle on the internet." They always lose, because no one even considers it an "ideological war" when they try to convince all of us that "United Russia" and Putin's "Ozero" cooperative should steal as much as possible and invest the stolen money abroad, because otherwise "Russia will be torn apart by external forces." That is why they have decided to push the internet in the direction of the zombie box (slang for television). There they already have "stop lists" and censorship, and here they want to create "blacklists" too, with providers blocking one site or another without a court order, simply on instructions from a ministry. As usual in such cases, everything is presented under the sauce of "protecting children from pornography and drugs." And then it is simple: someone leaves a comment on any site/blog/forum with a link to a topic like "how to cook LSD from buckwheat and brilliant green antiseptic," after which the site is added to the "prohibited registry," and its owner spends months running through the courts trying to prove he is not a camel. Meanwhile, anyone who really wants to find a recipe for making drugs or read about suicide will still find everything they need within 3 seconds. It is reports like these (especially the last paragraph) that they do not like, not drugs. It is this that upsets them, not suicides. We remember that a court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur has already blocked YouTube by court order over an "extremist video." And in Kazakhstan, whose internet regulation practices clearly serve as a model for the Party of Crooks and Thieves, both LiveJournal and WordPress, along with many other resources, have been blocked. Wikipedia is doing the right thing. It would be good to see clear and unambiguous statements and actions on this issue from Yandex, Russian Google, and everyone else as well.