The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
Do not republish information from non-standard sources regarding the block of Wikipedia. (December 5, 2015) [Chinese]
Wikipedia was IP blocked over the weekend. Netizens reported that they could not access any of Wikipedia, in any language, from computers, but had no problems accessing it from mobile devices. English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) is no longer blocked, according to GreatFire.org.
The block occurred two days after Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced that he will visit Beijing in two weeks, hoping to convince the Chinese government to keep the website available to its citizens. Complicating his pitch, Wikipedia encrypted all its sites this summer, “which means they’re no longer able to filter out certain pages. So they have a choice of all of Wikipedia or none.”
Chinese Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org) was blocked in mid-May and remains inaccessible.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
