Wikipedia to appeal Russian fine for misinformation about Ukraine

The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia, is appealing a recent ruling by a Russian court regarding ‘prohibited’ material. The online encyclopedia refused to remove certain pages and was fined for doing so.

The appeal was filed last week and is challenging a recent fine of 5 million rubles, or roughly 83,000 euros. The fine was imposed on the nonprofit for refusing to remove alleged misinformation on the website, according to Wikimedia Foundation† The Russian court would give a response in the coming weeks, although no concrete deadline has been announced.

The pages criticized by Russia all relate to the invasion of Ukraine and mostly describe war crimes and other atrocities committed against Ukrainian civilians. Pages such as “The Russian invasion of Ukraine”, “War crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and “Mass murder in Bucha” had to be removed from the platform by the Russian government, which Wikipedia refused to do.

According to the Wikimedia Foundation, in all cases this concerns ‘reliable, verified knowledge’ with social importance: “The [Russische] government has focused on information that is essential to people’s lives in this time of crisis. We ask the court to reconsider its decision in favor of everyone’s right to access to knowledge and freedom of expression.” Furthermore, the organization claims that Wikipedia is outside the jurisdiction of Russia at all as it is an international platform.

This is not the first time that the Russian government has taken action against Wikipedia. Earlier, for example, the online encyclopedia was forced to adapt an article about a certain type of hash after pressure from the Russian authority in the field of communication. Roskomnadzor, the relevant body, also protested in the recent Ukraine case.

The Kremlin has repeatedly objected to specific pages on Wikipedia