Russian Wikipedia blackout
2012 protest on Russian Wikipedia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On July 10, 2012, the Russian Wikipedia blacked out in protest against the amendments to the law "On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to their Health and Development" being considered in the Russian State Duma, as well as to draw public attention to Russian Internet Restriction Bill . On the day after the blackout, the title page of Russian Wikipedia displayed an information banner calling for opposition to the adoption of this bill.
Russian Internet Restriction Bill was introduced to the State Duma on June 7, 2012, and was already passed in the first reading on July 6, despite the proposal of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights to withdraw it from consideration.[1][2] By the second reading, deputies made some amendments.[3] On July 11, the bill was adopted by the State Duma in the second and third readings unanimously, and was approved by the Federation Council on July 18.[4][5][6][7] On July 28, the relevant Federal Law of the Russian Federation N139-FZ was finally adopted and signed by President Vladimir Putin, entering into force upon publication in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on July 30, 2012.[8][9]
The decision to blackout was made on the eve of the anticipated second reading of the bill. To make the decision to blackout, a discussion was held on Russian Wikipedia. The corresponding press release emphasized that "these amendments may become the basis for real censorship on the Internet...".[10] The action was supported by several Internet resources, including the three other language sections of Wikipedia (Italian, Bashkir and Yakutian), the blog platform Live Journal, the social network VKontakte, the search engine Yandex, the wiki site Lurkmore, the imageboard 2ch.so and the Runet citation site Bash.im.[11] Words of solidarity were also expressed by official representatives of a number of Internet companies, who expressed concern that "there was no real discussion of the bill either in the expert community or in the authorities," calling on lawmakers to postpone the adoption of the bill and to carry out its serious revision.[12][13]