Wikipedia and Corruption! Fighting Government Through Anti-Censorship

Since focusing on wikis this week, I figured to talk about something that happened recently in the news. This being "Fontgate". The main basis for the story is that the Pakistani Prime Minister's Daughter was found allegedly in relation to the Panama Papers, and in 2006 wrote a declaration regarding one of the firms involved. In investigation, it was found she used "Calibri" font when in 2006 "Wasn't out to the public yet". Yet the Calibri font was created pre 2007, in 2004 (and given in private before its full release). To defend a possibly corrupt government, supporters flooded the calibri page in turn to announce it was created in 2007 rather than 2004. Wikipedia put a stop to this, and locked the page to editing (Benjakob, 2017).

This isn't the first time Wikipedia stood up to hostile changes, nor is it the last, as Wikipedia has been a supporter against government acted censorship since its creation. Though this does not mean governments have been able to censor Wikipedia at all. Due to a change from HTTP to HTTPS, instead of governments blocking IPs going to one page, the government (to prevent education of specific issues), just block Wikipedia entirely (such as Russia with Marijuana) (Ukani, 2017).

You go Wikipedia in being you, but what about other encyclopedias? Is instructional learning through user created teachings hostile or even harmful? Well, yes. It just depends on the "Wiki" you are looking at...Instead of creating fake names for Australian currency and having a strict user base make sure to fix it (Langford, 2017)....you instead have well "Wikis".

The Best 100 dollar note though "The Most Worthy Rectangle"

Works Cited: 

Benjakob, O. (2017, July 13). The Calibri Font is Threatening to Bring Down Pakistan's Government. Retrieved from Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.801006

Langform, S. (2017, July 21). The Most Worthy Rectangle: Wikipedia Deletes Amazing List of Fake Aussie Slang for $100 Note. Retrieved from Junkee: http://junkee.com/wikipedia-list-slang-100-note/114214

Ukani, A. (2017, June 29). Wikipedia Against Censorship. Retrieved from Harvard Magazine: http://harvardmagazine.com/2017/06/wikipedia