In July 2024, ANI filed a lawsuit against Wikimedia Foundation in the Delhi High Court — claiming to have been defamed in its article on Wikipedia — and sought ₹2 crore (US$240,000) in damages. At the time of the suit’s filing, the Wikipedia article about ANI said the news agency had “been accused of having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government, distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites, and misreporting events on multiple occasions”. The filing accused Wikipedia of publishing “false and defamatory content with the malicious intent of tarnishing the news agency’s reputation, and aimed to discredit its goodwill”.
On 5 September, the Court threatened to hold Wikimedia guilty of contempt for failing to disclose information about the editors who had made changes to the article and warned that Wikipedia might be blocked in India upon further non-compliance. The judge on the case stated “If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India… We will ask government to block your site”. In response, Wikimedia emphasized that the information in the article was supported by multiple reliable secondary sources. Justice Manmohan said “I think nothing can be worse for a news agency than to be called a puppet of an intelligence agency, stooge of the government. If that is true, the credibility goes.”
On 21 October, the Wikimedia Foundation suspended access to the article for Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation due to an order from the court.
Blocking an article worldwide based on the orders of a single oppressive regime? That settles it, Wikipedia is no longer worth donating to, since they’ve proven they’re willing to bow to this type of thing rather than stand behind the truth.
What’s been blocked? Looks like just the ANI vs Wikipedia, but I don’t think that’s abnormal for an ongoing lawsuit. The ANI page is still up
Article is still up, I dont really understand this post.
Uh… No it isn’t? Like, my dude, did you click the link up there?
Huh, I swear when I clicked the link it worked just fine though. Indeed, it seems to be down now.
The article on the lawsuit is blocked, which is standard procedure for participants of an ongoing lawsuit: Talk to your lawyer about it, and nobody else, because anything you say without your lawyer’s counsel might jeopardise your legal position. Even if it’s just people editing that article, the foundation will want to protect itself until the matter is settled.
Don’t forget that non-profits, too, are beholden to laws. If they want to continue offering their services in India, they don’t really want to be charged for contempt on top of the other case.
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