Wikipedia May Censor Images

KiloByte joins the ranks of accepted submitters, writing "To appease 'morality' watchdogs, Wikipedia is contemplating the introduction of a censorship feature, where images would be flagged for containing sexual references, nudity, 'mass graves,' and so on. At least in the initial implementation, it is supposed to be 'opt-in.' However, with such precedents as the UK censoring artistic nudity, Turkey censoring references to the Armenian genocide or China's stance on information about the Tiananmen massacre (note that any sensitive photos, like the Tank Man, are already absent!), I find it quite hard to believe this feature won't be mandatory for some groups of readers — whether it's thanks to an oppressive government, an ISP or a school."

Comments

Opt-in to censor out fair use

[tepples]

Letting people opt-in to censor images in Category:All non-free media has been discussed for a while, if I remember correctly.

may?

[rbrausse]

the referendum was not about "should we add a filter" but "how should a filter implemented".

the resolution "controversial content" was approved 10:0 in May 2010

We ask the Executive Director, in consultation with the community, to develop and implement a personal image hiding feature that will enable readers to easily hide images hosted on the projects that they do not wish to view

The foundation wants a filter, the community has no way to stop such a feature.

Tank Man photo not censored by China

[Sparklepony]

Just thought I should point out it's not China that's responsible for the Tank Man photo being missing from the Tienamen Square massacre article. It's good old western copyright law. The Tank Man photo is copyrighted and not freely licensed so Wikipedia can only include it as fair use. Fair use on Wikipedia is held to very strict standards; fair use images can only be used on articles where the image is otherwise indispensible. So you can find it over at Tank Man, which is specifically about the photo.