Wikimedia says it ‘will not back down’ after Russia threatens Wikipedia block

The Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement in support of Russian Wikipedia volunteers. On Tuesday, tech and communications regulators threatened to block Wikipedia over a Russian-language page about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, claiming it contained false messages about war casualties and the effects of economic sanctions.

The Wikimedia Foundation received a demand from the Russian government to remove content related to the invasion of Ukraine posted by volunteer contributors to Russian Wikipedia. We will not back down in the face of attempts to censor and intimidate members of our movement. We are committed to delivering free knowledge to the world.

The Wikimedia address user edits from a February 27th version of the article were demanded by the Roskomnadzor demand. It takes issue with the information about numerous casualties among the military personnel of the Russian Federation, as well as the civilian population of Ukraine, including number of children.

Wikimedia Russia called the claims "fundamentally impossible" to evaluate and urged the government not to block access to the article. The page is constantly changing thanks to the work of its many editors.

Russian authorities have complained about the pages in the past. The site was blocked by the government in 2015, but it was quickly restored. The current threat is part of a larger online effort by Russia to control the narrative around the war. At a time of crisis, denying people access to reliable information can have life-changing consequences.