French Intelligence Agency Forces Removal of Wikipedia Entry 179
saibot834 writes "The French domestic intelligence agency DCRI has forced a Wikipedia administrator to delete an article about a local military base. The administrator, who is also the president of Wikimédia France, has been threatened by the agency with immediate reprisals after his initial refusal to comply. Following a discussion on the administrator's noticeboard, the article (which is said to violate a law on the secrecy of the national defense) has been reinstated by a foreign user. Prior to pressuring the admin, DCRI contacted the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which refused to remove the article. WMF claimed the article only contained publicly available information, in accordance with Wikipedia's verifiability policy. While the consequences for Wikimedia's community remain unclear, one thing is certain: The military base article – now available in English – will get more public awareness than ever before."
Submitter here (Score:5, Insightful)
In this case the problem was not that Wikipedia was centralized. The Wikimedia Foundation in the US did not comply with the agency's demands.
The problem was that the administrator's real name was publicly known (he's a public figure [wikipedia.org] and it's his username) so that they were able to find someone under French jurisdiction. Most admins and non-admins use pseudonyms and are thus immune to real-life pressure.
All in all, I'd say the system worked. The admin had to give in to the immense pressure, but he was sensible enough to publicly announce what he did, thus enabling foreign users to reinstate the article. Now, the really threatening cases are those with gag orders, such as given by US intelligence agencies.
Could have been worse (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Le effect Streissand. (Score:4, Insightful)
Unlike the usual cases, the Streisand effect does not really fit here.
Sure it will happen.
But the french intelligence agency does not care about 'public attention'. They care about what information other intelligence agencies can obtain about their bases.
And if those are interested in said base at all, they will find the info wikipedia has on it, with, or without Miss Streisand's help.
Re:Le effect Streissand. (Score:5, Insightful)
That said - This article has pretty much nothing of interest...
In this case you're probably right, however one shouldn't forget that intelligence job is to gather tiny bits of information that might look of no interest to average people to reconstruct schemes in contexts that are of interest to them (and other intelligence services). It's a profession.
It is the same problematic as with Facebook lambda users for example who say "Due, I don't publish very private information about myself there, so what, and who cares...", when you warn them about their privacy. They simply ignore there are specialists out there, how powerful data mining systems are and how they are capable of spotting, linking and gathering tiny elements of information where themselves just see nothing.
I just want to say that intelligence agencies know what is sensible or of interest to them and what is not. We, outsiders, don't.
But sure they got a Streisand effect here...
Re:Bruce Schneier (Score:4, Insightful)