Roskomnadzor has included the Wikimedia Foundation (owner of Wikipedia) in the list of foreign companies required to open a representative office in Russia under the “exit” law. www.wikipedia.org sites are listed as resources; wikipedia.org; en.wikipedia.org.
Stanislav Kozlovsky, managing director of the non-profit partnership “Wikimedia.Ru” (who manages the Russian version of “Wikipedia”), commented on the actions of RKN in an interview with “socialbites.ca”.
According to him, the decision to open a representative office has not been taken yet, but he does not see any sense in it.
“There are no ads on Wikipedia, there never was and never will be. Wikipedia is non-commercial. But I don’t understand where these big penalties are coming from,” he said. [открывать представительство]basically private. So just for what? But until the decision is made, maybe it will happen, maybe not.”
The agency requires foreign companies to comply with three conditions under the law on “landing”: placing an electronic feedback form in the information source; create a branch, open a representative office or create a Russian legal entity, and also open a personal account on the RKN website.
In case of non-compliance with the requirements, the online encyclopedia partially or completely block. According to the Wikimedia Foundation card, none of the requirements have yet been met.
forced to land
At the end of April, Wikimedia.Ru received requests from Roskomnadzor to provide data on the resource’s involvement. The agency justified this with the provision of the law on the “landing” of foreign IT companies. Roskomnadzor told the newspaper Kommersant that the activities of the Wikimedia Foundation comply with the requirements of the law.
Kozlovsky then noted that Wikimedia.Ru does not have access to Wikipedia servers and cannot represent their owner, the Wikimedia Foundation, in court. According to him, not all employees of the parent company are in Russia.
Sarkis Darbinyan, managing partner at the DRC law firm, told Kommersant that Roskomnadzor could use the “descent” law to exclude or block Wikipedia from search results. He expressed the opinion that the encyclopedia still exists in Russia, because RKN “trying to reach an agreement until the end, so as not to radicalize users who do not take a negative position towards Russian state bodies.”
Currently, 13 foreign organizations, including Google, Twitter, Telegram and Zoom, fall under the law’s criteria. The requirements were met by Viber, Likeme, Apple (which later suspended sales in Russia), and Spotify, which left the Russian Federation. Company Meta (recognized as an extremist organization) was delisted after it was deemed extremist and banned in Russia.
Penalties for articles about a special operation
At the end of April, the Tagansky Court of Moscow 3 million rubles He fined the Wikimedia Foundation for refusing to remove “false articles about the actions of the Russian military during the military operation in Ukraine.” Company, 13.41. found guilty of a crime under part 2 of article 2 (not removing content prohibited in the Russian Federation). This is the first fine in Russia for an article on Wikipedia.
From the materials of the court, the operation of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine, the occupation of Kiev, the events in Bucha, the destruction of the hospital and theater in Mariupol, and Vladimir Putin.
On April 5, Russian-language Wikipedia on Twitter reported that it received notifications from the “Prosecutor General’s Office under five simultaneous items: “Battle for Kyiv (2022)”, “War crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, “ Bombing of a hospital in Mariupol ”, “The Mariupol Theater of Destruction (2022)” and “Massacre in Bucha”.
Roskomnadzor pointed out that the published information does not correspond to the official data of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The court also handed down another sentence to Wikimedia. 2 million rubles for articles on smoke and smokeless powder. They were supposed to be removed by decision of the courts of the Tver and Tambov regions. These articles were in the nature of information about explosive production methods and methods.
Wikimedia.Ru believes that restricting access to the online encyclopedia may lead to a decrease in the objectivity and quality of the texts published there.
“Blocking the encyclopedia will lead to a significant restriction of the opportunity for its authors from Russia – there are more than 3 million registered – to participate in the creation and editing of encyclopedia texts. As a result, this will degrade them and reduce neutrality, making it less likely that Wikipedia will be unblocked in Russia in the future.” Kozlovsky noted.
President does not use Wikipedia
On May 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin drew attention to the demand for educational projects in Russia that will include information presented in an objective, deep and skillfully presented way.
“It is impossible to use Wikipedia alone,” said the head of state. “We know the quality of this information ourselves.”
Later, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that Putin uses “more reliable sources of information” than the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.