Enlarge / Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2021. (credit: RAMIL SITDIKOV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censorship authority, issued another demand on Tuesday for Wikipedia to remove what it called “unreliable socially significant information. ” The agency warned that failure to comply could lead to fines of up to 4 million rubles ($50, 000).
The Wikimedia Foundation did not immediately respond to an email from Ars seeking comment. But the organization made its stance plain last month after the Russian government made similar demands. A March 3 statement on the Wikimedia website declared that “we will not back down in the face of efforts to censor and intimidate members of our movement. ”
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the government tightened its already strict media censorship regime. In early March, President Vladimir Putin signed legislation prohibiting the publication of “fake news. ” Violators could face prison terms of as long as 15 years. Passage of the law led a number of Western media organizations to suspend reporting in Russian federation.
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