Russian Wikipedia protests online censorship with blackout

The Russian version of Wikipedia has declared a 24-hour-long boycott in protest against a child protection bill, which the community says paves the way for internet censorship in Russia.

The front page of the Russian-language branch of the online encyclopedia has been changed on Tuesday. It only carries a notice of the blackout in Russia, while its headline is covered by a black censorship rectangle. Only a handful of some 838,000 articles remain available at the moment, all of which are related to censorship and the cause of the boycott.

The protest move comes as the Russian Parliament discusses a bill which would amend several Russian federal laws related to regulation of information. Sponsors of the bill say they want to provide better protection of children from potentially harmful information on the internet, including web pages advocating substance abuse, suicide and excessively risky behavior, as well as child pornography.

The Russian Wikipedia community has joined critics of the bill, who believe that the blacklist of sites with not-for-children content that the bill introduces will result in internet censorship.

Internet giants operating in Russia, including Google, Yandex and Mail.Ru called for a public scrutiny over the so-called dubious enforcement mechanism.

Some rights organizations are saying that it would lack efficiency in protecting children from inappropriate content.