Wikipedia Unblocked in Mainland…Again
It appears that Wikipedia has been unblocked again in the mainland. As Flumesday was the first to report of the previous liberation of Wikipedia in October, these blockings and unblocking of the world’s open-source online encyclopedia just don’t seem all that interesting anymore. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it. Flickr gets blocked and Wikipedia gets unblocked in the same week. Friday, the always excellent Chinese media site Danwei reported that while the English Wikipedia had been unblocked, the Chinese version was still banned. As we have learned in the past, every time we think that the Chinese government has come to its senses and allowed China’s English speakers access to the Wikipedia site, they end up blocking it again soon after. After the site was unblocked in October, it was blocked again a month later. In 2004, the site was freed for 4 months before getting outlawed again. While the Chinese government still seems to be hanging on to the hope that blocking internet content will preclude the Chinese people from accessing the same information the rest of the world is privy to, what they fail to realize is that the content of Wikipedia is available on a variety of other accessible sites like Answers.com and through anonymous proxy servers on the web. Anyone that has a will to get to Wikipedia, Chinese or English, will find a way to learn about “June 4th” or “Tibet” or any of the other taboo topics in China. And at this point, these bans just seem childish and annoying. So although it is a good thing that the English version of Wikipedia has been unblocked, no one should be optimistic that this will stick. For all of those out there like me who love Wikipedia, and in the last 24 hours I’ve used the site to browse Phil Collins’ discography and investigate whether or not the wife of presidential candidate/actor Fred Thompson is actually a stripper, enjoy it while it lasts.
•PC World: English Wikipedia Unblocked in China
•National Ledger: Scarborough Dubs Fred Thompson’s Wife a Stripper