Wikipedia Won't Bow to Chinese Censors

truthsearch writes "Jimmy Wales has defied the Chinese government by refusing to bow to censorship of politically sensitive Wikipedia entries. He challenges other internet companies, including Google, to justify their claim that they could do more good than harm by co-operating with Beijing. Wikipedia has been banned from China since last October. Whereas Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo went into the country accepting some restrictions on their online content, Wales believes it must be all or nothing for Wikipedia. 'We occupy a position in the culture that I wish Google would take up, which is that we stand for the freedom for information.'"

Why?

[TheSHAD0W]

Why would China ban Wikipedia... When they can just edit it?

Rewrite History

[raftpeople]

With over 1 billion people, if every chinese did their part, there's no way the rest of the world could keep up with their entries into Wikipedia.

He'll be

[cyber-vandal]

First against the wall when the revolution comes.

Re:Why?

[king-manic]

Why would China ban Wikipedia... When they can just edit it?

# of employees in Chinese censorship office
1,500

# of chinese nationals who want to correct the offficial bullshit
~100,000+

# of non nationals wanting to correct the official bullshit

~1-2 million

clearly even with cheap labor they couldn't compete. So they banned it.

Re:Then Google need to google.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google's search led me to Wikipedia, but since I'm in China, I can't read it.

Re:what? of course it does.

[Jabrwock]

It's easy to be heroic when you have nothing to lose. It's like instead of rescuing the princess from a fire-breathing dragon, Jimmy is rescuing her from a field mouse.

While in the other valley, Tommy tells the dragon where the knight is hiding out, and tells the princess he had no choice, it was the only way to be able to access the dragons's hoard... er I mean to slowly convince the dragon of the error of his ways...

Re:Defiance Versus Inability

[Jamil Karim]

Are you suggesting Chinese piracy? What an interesting concept, I've never heard of such a thing!

Re:Business or Foundation

[Reaperducer]

I've never heard of...

Wow. You've never heard of something. Great research there. No one's ever walked up to you and told you something, so your assumptions must be true!

Re:Then Google need to google.

[1u3hr]

Is anyone else surprised that China would allow access to ./

Because it's an excellent way for people to blow off steam, without havnig any effect on the real world.