Original Link.

More info.

In July 2024, ANI filed a lawsuit against Wikimedia Foundation in the Delhi High Court — claiming to have been defamed in its article on Wikipedia — and sought ₹2 crore (US$240,000) in damages. At the time of the suit’s filing, the Wikipedia article about ANI said the news agency had “been accused of having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government, distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites, and misreporting events on multiple occasions”. The filing accused Wikipedia of publishing “false and defamatory content with the malicious intent of tarnishing the news agency’s reputation, and aimed to discredit its goodwill”.

On 5 September, the Court threatened to hold Wikimedia guilty of contempt for failing to disclose information about the editors who had made changes to the article and warned that Wikipedia might be blocked in India upon further non-compliance. The judge on the case stated “If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India… We will ask government to block your site”. In response, Wikimedia emphasized that the information in the article was supported by multiple reliable secondary sources. Justice Manmohan said “I think nothing can be worse for a news agency than to be called a puppet of an intelligence agency, stooge of the government. If that is true, the credibility goes.”

On 21 October, the Wikimedia Foundation suspended access to the article for Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation due to an order from the court.

  • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 hours ago

    Blocking an article worldwide based on the orders of a single oppressive regime? That settles it, Wikipedia is no longer worth donating to, since they’ve proven they’re willing to bow to this type of thing rather than stand behind the truth.

  • مهما طال الليل@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    I would expect something like this from my mother country sooner than India. Surprised but not that surprised. The precedent being set is concerning.

    • itsame@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      The precedent was years ago with Facebook and WhatsApp blocking alleged anti government messages (which the court branded as anti-nation, sedition). Last year the BBC documentary about Modi and alleged fascism was world news and led to the departure of BBC from India. The problem is that the world sees India as an emerging market where in fact it is a fascist country in the making.

  • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    This is pretty big news, I would think it would be relevant in way more than just one article, time to do some updating.

  • RV5@kbin.melroy.org
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    6 hours ago

    I don’t know what exactly is blocked worldwde, but in the frenche Wikipedia here, while the description is short, it’s here and extremely explicit:

    [ANI] est pointée comme une « fabrique de fake news », un canal de désinformation proche du gouvernement indien4, dont les articles citent pour décrédibiliser les rivaux du pays de prétendus experts inventés de toutes pièces in other words, ‘{the ANI news agency] is considered a fake news factory and a deinformation channel close to the government whose papers use to quote invented fake experts to de-credibilize rival countries’ Couldn’t be clearer (and unbanned)…

    • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      from that page i can switch to English ☞ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_News_International

      In July 2024, ANI filed a lawsuit against Wikimedia Foundation in the Delhi High Court — claiming to have been defamed in its article on Wikipedia — and sought ₹2 crore (US$240,000) in damages. At the time of the suit’s filing, the Wikipedia article about ANI said the news agency had “been accused of having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government, distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites, and misreporting events on multiple occasions”. The filing accused Wikipedia of publishing “false and defamatory content with the malicious intent of tarnishing the news agency’s reputation, and aimed to discredit its goodwill”.

      On 5 September, the Court threatened to hold Wikimedia guilty of contempt for failing to disclose information about the editors who had made changes to the article and warned that Wikipedia might be blocked in India upon further non-compliance. The judge on the case stated “If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India… We will ask government to block your site”. In response, Wikimedia emphasized that the information in the article was supported by multiple reliable secondary sources. Justice Manmohan said “I think nothing can be worse for a news agency than to be called a puppet of an intelligence agency, stooge of the government. If that is true, the credibility goes.”

      On 21 October, the Wikimedia Foundation suspended access to the article for Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation due to an order from the court.

      which is what’s quoted by OP

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Damn corps always getting away with stuff. They should fine them as a percentage of profit ….😉

  • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    if this 👇 happened in France, than of course that 👆 can happen in India

    The DCRI summoned a Wikipedia volunteer in their offices on April 4th [2013]. This volunteer, which was one of those having access to the tools that allow the deletion of pages, was forced to delete the article while in the DCRI offices, on the understanding that he would have been held in custody and prosecuted if he did not comply. Under pressure, he had no other choice than to delete the article, despite explaining to the DCRI this is not how Wikipedia works. He warned the other sysops that trying to undelete the article would engage their responsibility before the law. This volunteer had no link with that article, having never edited it and not even knowing of its existence before entering the DCRI offices. He was chosen and summoned because he was easily identifiable, given his regular promotional actions of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in France.

    source

  • Eideen@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Why not allow India to block Wikipedia? Or have a filter that hides Indians dark secrets, when coming from India.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Because it’s the government of india that wants to block wikipedia for Indian citizens.

  • SagXD@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    WTF, If wikipedia get blocked in my country. Then, I am just graduating to leave my shitty country.

  • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    So, lemme get this straight: Wikipedia is being censored (worldwide, might I add) because a party complains that they are reported of as being accused of a thing, or because of the thing itself?

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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    6 hours ago

    Seems like a good opportunity to remind folks about the Kiwix project, which allows you to download local private copies of select information such as Wikipedia. It was originally created to provide offline access to content for countries that were otherwise blocked, but events like this have sparked some recent discussion about archiving older files to preserve history.