Church of Scientology Banned From Wikipedia
posted by Dave Hoffman
A blockbuster decision from the Wikipedia arbitration committee, ruling on a long-festering dispute about articles regarding the Church of Scientology. The problem, according to the Committee, was an organized campaign to control the content of articles about Scientology. From the findings of fact:
3.0) This longstanding dispute is a struggle between two rival factions: admirers of Scientology and critics of Scientology.
A) Editors from each side have gamed policy to obtain advantage and disputes have spilled over into, for example, articles for deletion, the reliable sources noticeboard, the conflict of interests noticeboard, and sometimes the administrators’ noticeboard.
B) Aggravating factors have been (i) the presence of editors openly editing from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities; and (ii) the apparent presence of notable critics of Scientology, from several Internet organisations, apparently editing under their own names and citing either their own or each other’s self-published material.
The key remedy:
2) All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies. Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses.
Want to know more about the arbitration committee and the process it used to reach this outcome? I’ve a law review article just for you.
May 29, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Posted in: Uncategorized
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Responses (2)
Nashville Cabling - May 29, 2009 at 10:54 pm
I say it should not be a big deal, wiki has the right to say no to any topic its their site.
Brett Bellmore - May 30, 2009 at 11:39 am
Seems fair enough, letting Scientologists edit the article on Scientology is like letting mobsters edit the article on the Cosa Nostra. They might have some special insight, but it’s still a bad idea.
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