The non-profit organization Wikimedia Foundation that is behind Wikipedia, reported that it has blocked seven Chinese users due to a “security threat.”
Another 12 users were deprived of the once high privileges.The group, which Dennis writes about, has over 280 members and was created in 2017. On the official page of the project, it is reported that its main goal is to help new users who want to learn how to use and edit Wikipedia, as well as to promote the portal within China, where the site was blocked back in 2019.
Dennis stated that the group could be infiltrated by people who pose a security threat to the organization and its users:
At the same time, it is emphasized that not all users who were ultimately restricted from access posed a security threat. These people themselves could be in danger and could be subjected to “exploitation and harm from outside groups, since they were already trusted insiders” within the Wikimedia project.
The report emphasizes that the investigation was carried out by the same anti-disinformation team that banned the Croatian Wikipedia administrator in June this year for promoting radical right-wing views, which he disseminated through misleading and inaccurate edits.
According to the Free Press Hong Kong, at least one member of the Wikimedians of Mainland China has advocated reporting Hong Kong Wikipedia users to the Chinese police, and other members of the group have been involved in campaigning for administrative positions on China’s Wikimedia section.
Let me remind you that we also talked about the fact that “The Great Chinese Firewall” blocks 311,000 domains, and 41,000 of them – by mistake.
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