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Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

pta.gov.pk

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Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#81
post #52

Twitter appears to have complied with removing the BBC documentary tweets for users in India. So some tweets are not available in India. It does look like Wikipedia is ahead of Twitter in the free speech absolutist game if it prefers being blocked to compliance.

You're comparing a group chat to an encyclopedia...

I'd describe Twitter as closer to a news site in the modern era. There are a lot of journalists and other important public figures sharing information there, and that's especially true for important live news events like earthquakes. (Twitter is the first place I check if I feel the house shake, for example.)

Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#82
post #28
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am trying to think why Wikipedia would care about this. They offer a free service - if you don't want it that's just disappointing.

Then everyone in Pakistan gets deprived of a valuable source of knowledge on virtue of their government being obscurantist.

The people who actually care are the Pakistani people. Let them fight it. Wikipedia can and should just keep doing what its doing.

Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They disowned their one Nobel laureate and maybe one of the greatest minds of his generation because of his Islam being different from their Islam. That place is a failed nation. Thank fuck for the internet so the people aren’t insulated from the outside world.

Same thing happened to James Watson.

No, it didn't — neither Crick or Watson had any consequences for their speech anywhere near the level of being exiled or facing prosecution. An institution cutting ties after you spend years making racist claims is a disappointing tarnish to your career, but it's nothing like going to jail or potentially facing the execution (Pakistan has the death penalty for blasphemy).

Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#84

I'm starting to view more and more things as nationalism vs globalism. E.g. multinational corporations vs national tax laws E.g. global internet services vs national privacy laws E.g. global internet services vs national decency laws (the posted issue) I'm starting to realise this mismatch is where a lot of friction is and will continue to be.

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Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#85
post #30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am trying to think why Wikipedia would care about this. They offer a free service - if you don't want it that's just disappointing.

They might care that Pakistani Wikipedia editors and readers alike could find themselves targeted by the Pakistani authorities.

Okay, they might care. But they won't care in a way that causes them to censor anything, so it's a moot point. Pakistan is just not going to affect the editorial policy of Wikipedia. They know this, so they made a decision to block the site. Oh well, sucks for Pakistanis, and since it's a democracy, all I can say is - elect better governments.

Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article https://www.geo.tv/latest/468510-pakistan-warns-blocking-wik... says depictions of Muhammad and saying this person https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirza_Masroor_Ahmad is a Muslim. I'm not sure if that press conference was over the 2020 issue or the current one.

They disowned their one Nobel laureate and maybe one of the greatest minds of his generation because of his Islam being different from their Islam. That place is a failed nation. Thank fuck for the internet so the people aren’t insulated from the outside world.

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Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#87
post #73
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might care that Pakistani Wikipedia editors and readers alike could find themselves targeted by the Pakistani authorities.

By that argument, HN should remove any comment that mentions Tianenmen Square, so that readers in China do not find themselves targeted by the CCP.

I am certainly not arguing for censorship of Wikipedia, I’m just responding to the comment asking why Wikipedia would care about this situation.

Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#88

I'm starting to view more and more things as nationalism vs globalism. E.g. multinational corporations vs national tax laws E.g. global internet services vs national privacy laws E.g. global internet services vs national decency laws (the posted issue) I'm starting to realise this mismatch is where a lot of friction is and will continue to be.

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That implies that “modern” is unequivocally better than anything else.

Re: Pakistani gov degrades Wikipedia connections due to blasphemy

#89

I'm starting to view more and more things as nationalism vs globalism. E.g. multinational corporations vs national tax laws E.g. global internet services vs national privacy laws E.g. global internet services vs national decency laws (the posted issue) I'm starting to realise this mismatch is where a lot of friction is and will continue to be.

Decency laws is too kind of way to put this - they're forcing their religion on others.

If countries would stop censoring free speech, we wouldn't have the problem at all.

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