---
title: "China’s Government Just Blocked the Entirety of Wikipedia"
description: "The Chinese government has extended its Wikipedia ban to include all available languages of the online encyclopedia, the Wikimedia foundation has confirmed."
date: "2019-05-15"
modified: "2019-05-15"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-wikipedia-ban"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "censorship"
  - "china"
  - "great firewall"
  - "the digest"
  - "wikipedia"
---

# China’s Government Just Blocked the Entirety of Wikipedia

![The Chinese government has extended its Wikipedia ban to include all available languages of the online encyclopedia, the Wikimedia foundation has confirmed.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/china-wikipedia-ban.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Language Barrier

Wikipedia is no longer welcome in China.

On May 4, an internet censorship initiative called the Open Observatory of Network Interference [reported](<https://ooni.torproject.org/post/2019-china-wikipedia-blocking/>) that China had extended its ban of the free online encyclopedia to include all available languages, not just the Chinese version.

And on Tuesday, the Wikimedia foundation [confirmed](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48269608>) the Wikipedia ban with *BBC News* — meaning China has made it completely illegal for citizens to access one of the internet's most extensive sources of information.

## Shock Block

The ban apparently came as a surprise to Wikimedia, which told *BBC News* it received "no notice" of China's plans.

"In late April, the Wikimedia Foundation determined that Wikipedia was no longer accessible in China," the foundation wrote in a statement to *BBC News*. "After closely analysing our internal traffic reports, we can confirm that Wikipedia is currently blocked across all language versions."

## Controlling Relationship

The Chinese government has [long attempted](<http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885961,00.html>) to control what citizens could see and say online, but the nation's censorship efforts have [ramped up considerably](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinas-communist-party-unveils-new-leadership-with-no-obvious-successor-to-xi-jinping/2017/10/25/efe67876-b8fc-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.a824d450bfb0>) since the 2012 election of President Xi Jinping.

Today, citizens can't [use certain words](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-censorship-gene-edited-babies>) online, and Wikipedia joins a list of about [10,000 sites](<https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/how-to-access-youtube-in-china/>) that are outright banned.

That list of banned sites includes Google, Facebook, and yes, even *BBC News* — meaning there's a good chance the people of China might never even know their government has decided to put one of the internet's [preeminent sources](<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/is-wikipedia-a-world-cultural-repository/239274/>) of free information behind its Great Firewall.

**READ MORE:** [Wikipedia blocked in China in all languages](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48269608>) \[*BBC News*\]

**More on censorship:** *[China Is Trying to Scrub Bikinis and Smoking From the Internet](<https://futurism.com/china-scrub-bikinis-smoking-internet>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)