Monday, September 18, 2006
Wikipedia Censorship in China
Jimmy Wales talked to Red Herring about Chinese censorship of Wikipedia. While he doesn’t agree with any kind of censorship on Wikipedia, he says it would be better if at least only “sensitive” articles would be censored – not the complete domain, as frequently happens now.
Google in China also agreed to remove certain Wikipedia articles from their search results. I’m getting some weird Google behavior when using the site operator. It was my understanding Google China only censored domains and subdomains (not words in folders or file names), but a little probing of Google.cn shows something different – that Google possibly censors based on specific words in URLs, too:
- [Tiananmen Square Wikipedia]
On Google.com, the top result is the Wikipedia article. On Google.cn, the Wikipedia article doesn’t appear. Instead, a censorship disclaimer is shown at the bottom. Apparently parts of Wikipedia are blocked in Google China.
- [Mickey Mouse Wikipedia]
On Google.cn, the Wikipedia article appears. Apparently en.wikipedia.org is not fully blocked in Google China.
- [site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square]
This page exists. A censorship disclaimer appears on Google China.
- [site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_blabla]
This page does not exist. A censorship disclaimer appears on Google China.
- [site:blog.outer-court.com/Tiananmen_blabla]
This page does not exist. A censorship disclaimer appears on Google China.
- [site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianan]
This page does not exist. No censorship disclaimer appears on Google China.
- [site:tiananmen.org.cn]
The page does exist, and Google.cn shows it.
[Thanks Pd.]
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