A Moscow justice of peace has fined the Wikimedia Foundation, a non profit that funds Wikipedia, 2mln rubles (€32,000) for refusing to delete articles about the war in Ukraine, Mediazona outlet reports, citing the court’s press service.
The foundation has been found guilty of refusal to delete forbidden information.
According to the prosecution, Wikipedia did not delete articles ‘Non-violent resistance of Ukrainian civilians during Russian occupation’ and ‘Assessments of Russian invasion of Ukraine’.
The web encyclopaedia was previously fined 3mln rubles (€48,000) for “fake news” about the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine and 2mln rubles (€32,000) for publishing information about the ways to make gunpowder.
In August 2022, ex-editors of Wikipedia launched a Russian equivalent of the encyclopaedia in the country called Runiversalis.
“The encyclopaedia is hosted on Russian servers and declares respect for the requirements of Russian legislation and our traditional values. This means that any attempts to give the articles a left-liberal and Western-centric bias will be suppressed,” State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin said of the principles of Russia’s “new” Wikipedia.
