Wikipedia Blocks Edits From Church of Scientology

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 29, 2009 - 11:19am.

Los Angeles - The committee in charge of user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia voted unanimously this week to block contributions to the site from IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology, after a lengthy arbitration determined that users were editing Wikipedia articles in the church's interest. "You could imply that there is a conflict of interest," Wikipedia spokesman Dan Rosenthal told ABC News. "Rather than two unrelated people getting together," advocates of scientology have been "getting together, saying, 'Let's work together to make this a more pro-scientology article.'"

Users associated with the church can apply for an exemption to the block, provided they first agree to abide by Wikipedia's stated rules, which say that "use of the encyclopedia to advance personal agendas -- such as advocacy or propaganda and philosophical, ideological or religious dispute -- or to publish or promote original research is prohibited."

In addition to blocking IP addresses connected with the church, Wikipedia also decided to block a number of anti-Scientology editors from changing articles related to the church.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/j1jso (ABC News)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/29/wikipedia_bans_scientology/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Scientology