Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-10-16/China unblock
Wikipedia partially unblocked in mainland China
For the first time in nearly a year, users in
The lifting of the block was reported Tuesday, 10 October, on the Wikimedia Foundation mailing list by Mountain and Shi Zhao, two prominent contributors to the Chinese-language Wikipedia. They indicated that the English Wikipedia and most others could now be accessed, but the Chinese Wikipedia remained blocked.
Although not the first time Wikipedia has been blocked in the mainland of China, this has easily been the longest. The current round of blocking began on 18 October or 19 October 2005, meaning that the Chinese Wikipedia will have been blocked for a full year as of later this week. Two previous blocks in 2004 lasted for only a few days or weeks.
Media reaction
The new development was soon noticed by the outside media, although not always without some confusion about the facts.
Reporters Without Borders, in its statement about the lifting of the block, said, "We congratulate those in charge of Wikipedia, especially Jimmy Wales, who could have chosen to censor their own site to get official blessing. Instead they stuck to their principles and spurned self-censorship." Alluding to internet companies that have been more accommodating to the PRC government in restricting access, the organisation called Wikipedia an example for them to follow.
The
Mixed access results
Andrew Lih, who is based in Beijing and currently working on a book about Wikipedia, collected reports from various people about what they could and could not access. While there were some reports of being able to access at least part of the Chinese Wikipedia, he concluded that the majority of users probably could not. Reporters Without Borders said it had confirmed this in its tests as well. Lih updated his results on 16 October with a chart showing the accessibility of the English and Chinese versions, respectively, from a number of different locations.
In addition, the PRC has resumed filtering a variety of topics that are generally censored on all websites, such as the Falun Gong movement. Some relatively sensitive subjects could be accessed without resulting in a block, however, at least on the English Wikipedia.
The action reportedly came as the so-called "
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