[Wikipedia-l] Re: wikipedia in China

Fri Sep 24 05:46:51 UTC 2004

Delirium a écrit:
> Anthere wrote:
> 
>> Is that censorship ?
>>
>> Well... self-censorship, perhaps.
>>
>> But
>> * the day clitoris pictures are put on the english wikipedia without 
>> causing an uproar (because clitoris are shoking and might get 
>> wikipedia censored in schools)
>> * the day we can put ethnic statistics on the french wikipedia without 
>> causing an uproar (because "races" do not exist and publishing stats 
>> might get wikipedia shut down for publishing illegal information)
> 
> 
> You should note that the clitoris pictures currently are, and have been 
> for upwards of a year, included in the English Wikipedia.
> 
> Also, nobody has seriously suggested removing them: the argument has 
> been over whether to have them inline or linked.  There is no measurable 
> support for actually suppressing their availability, so I don't see the 
> similarity---they will be there in some shape or form regardless of 
> which side in the argument prevails.
> 
> -Mark

I saw with interest that they were online for the time being, which 
doesnot hide the *true fact* they were rather heated discussions on this 
topic several times for about 18 months as I remember it.

My memory is not so short :-)

But as you perfectly well say, a lot of the argument was whether they 
should be inline OR linked. And it did appear agreeable to a *sizeable* 
part of the community that the image should be censored INLINE, but 
could appear as external links.

Now... I ask the question. Why would it be shocking to provide a 
"""short""" article on this board issue (the closing of the board in 
China) and invite the reader to have further information by following 
external links ?

Especially if these links lead to the english wikipedia for example ?

There is no difference with a LINKED clitoris, since people can still 
access the information.

Just as it is helping some american deal with a clitoris picture without 
fully censoring the information, it might help the chinese government 
without fully censoring the information. It might just help recognise 
local sensibilities.

How different is that ?