Slashdot Mirror


Wikipedia Blocks Qatar [Updated]

GrumpySimon writes "Wikipedia has blocked the entire country of Qatar from editing pages. Whilst the ban is due to spam-abuse coming from the IP address in question, the fact that this belongs to the country's sole high-speed internet provider has the unintended consequence of stopping Qataris from editing the wiki. The ban has raised concerns about impartiality — the majority of Al Jazeera journalists operate out of Qatar, for example. This raises a number of issues about internet connectivity in small countries — what other internet bottlenecks like this exist?" Update: 01/02 13:32 GMT by Z : Jim Wales wrote in the comments that the story is 'completely false'. Either way, the ban has been lifted and anonymous editing is once again possible from Qatar.

1 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Wikipedia May Have Made Good Call by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 0, Troll

    If as the parent implied, Wikipedia is being overrun by Al Jazeerites from Qatar (Gutter), I don't see what the problem is. In fact, Wikipedia may have actually successfully fixed one, for once.

    --
    Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997