Russia threatens Wikipedia with a fine of 4 million rubles for articles about the invasion of Ukraine. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator, asked the platform to “remove inaccurate information about a special Russian Federation military operation in Ukraine aimed at disinforming Russian users.” It is one of many attempts by Moscow to censor the media and narrow the circle around the free encyclopedia.
The Kremlin had already threatened in early March to block Wikipedia for the Russian invasion of Ukraine page, which Moscow said contained inaccurate information about Ukrainian civilian and Russian military casualties.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the platform, responded that it would not be intimidated. On March 11, Mark Bernstein, blogger and editor of Russian Wikipedia, was arrested by Belarusian police on suspicion of violating Moscow’s law on fake news, then approved by the Duma, and faces fines and imprisonment of up to 15 years. Wikipedia created the Imprisonment of Mark Bernstein page. In recent weeks there has been a boom in downloads of the Russian version of Wikipedia: users fear that the platform will be blacked out.
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