Why Wikipedia Is Not Working In Pakistan? Has Pakistan Blocked Wikipedia?
by A Maria
Updated Feb 07, 2023
What Is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a free, multilingual online encyclopedia that is created and updated by a community of volunteers known as Wikipedians utilizing an open-source editing platform. As worldwide Wikipedia is the largest source for finding information and the most popular reference source in history. As of 2022, Wikipedia was listed as the fifth most popular website in the world. It is consistently one of the top 10 websites according to Similarweb and the former Alexa rankings. The main event of Wikipedia was hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, which is a non-profit organization in the United States of America mainly supported primarily by donations.
Why Wikipedia Is Not Working In Pakistan?
Pakistan made the decision to stop the search for information in online encyclopedia Wikipedia on January 4, 2023, for holding "unwanted content." of Muslims throughout Pakistan. Wikipedia was given 48 hours to delete some content after receiving a warning from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that the site would be blocked in the nation. "An opportunity of hearing the details and information was also granted," a PTA of Pakistan representative had informed the media, "the network is neither complied by removing the blasphemous content of Muslims nor appearing before the authority of the people around." Wikipedia will continue to be blocked in Pakistan until it removes "all the undesirable material," according to the spokeswoman, though the specifics of the content that the PTA wanted to be removed are unclear. When attempting to access the website, users are greeted with "this site cannot be reached," according to Dawn. Wikipedia has been blocked over “sacrilegious” content on the site, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Source: indianexpress
Why Wikipedia Banned In Pakistan?
According to a media report on Saturday, Pakistan has blocked Wikipedia because the website refused to take down inflammatory or blasphemous content. The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) threatened to stop Wikipedia if the blasphemous content was not removed days before the blacklisting of Wikipedia, according to The News daily. The blocking of Wikipedia was confirmed after a PTA spokeswoman was reached late on Friday night and asked about it, according to the report. The PTA restricted and slowed down access to the encyclopaedia website for 48 hours on the high court's directive because it contained offensive material.
Source: business-standard
Has Pakistan Blocked Wikipedia?
According to Pakistan's media regulator, the entire country has stopped searching sources and information related to anything about their studies or work-related on Wikipedia services because the website's alleged blasphemous content which has offended Muslims and not has been taken down. Islamabad's conduct was condemned by some as being detrimental to digital rights. Anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or its figures could receive the death penalty under Pakistan's contentious blasphemy laws, however, the country has not yet executed anyone for blasphemy. However, mere accusations of the crime are frequently enough to incite deadly attacks and mob violence. Blasphemy accusations, according to domestic and international rights organisations, have frequently been used to frighten religious minorities and settle personal grudges.
Source: time
Origin Of Wikipedia
A successful app creator named bond trader Jimmy Wales relocated to San Diego, California, in 1996 and found Bomis, Inc., basically which is a Web portal business content for many people around San Diego, California. With Larry Sanger serving as editor-in-chief, Wales established Nupedia, a free online encyclopedia, in March 2000. Like other encyclopedias, Nupedia was structured with an advisory board of subject-matter experts and a protracted review process. Less than twenty entries had been completed by January 2001, and Sanger suggested expanding Nupedia with an open-source encyclopedia based on wiki software. Wikipedia was initially introduced as a feature of Nupedia.com on January 15, 2001, but after the advisory board objected, it was reintroduced as a separate Web site a few days later.
Source: Britannica
Why Wikipedia Is Not Working In Pakistan - FAQs
Wikipedia is a free, multilingual online encyclopaedia that is created and updated by a community of volunteers known as Wikipedians utilising an open-source editing platform.
Pakistan has blocked Wikipedia after the website refused to remove offensive or blasphemous material, according to a media report on Saturday.
The blacklisting of Wikipedia comes days after the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) degraded Wikipedia services for 48 hours, threatening to block it if the content deemed blasphemous' was not deleted, reported.
It was declared on January 4, 2023.