Wikipedia Fined for Russian Article about Ukraine War

A Moscow court fined Wikipedia Foundation 2 million rubles ($24,464) after the latter refused to remove an article about a Russian military operation in Ukraine.

The Russian article titled “Russian Occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Region," is a reference to one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia annexed last September.

Tass said the Wikimedia Foundation had failed to heed the demands of Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove articles containing “false information.”

The news agency reported that a Wikipedia representative asked the court to reject the removal demand as vague.

This is not the first time Wikipedia has been fined for refusing to delete “false” information about the war in Ukraine.

Last year, TASS reported that Moscow will label the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, as a violator of Russian laws in search engines.

"Due to the failure of the American non-profit organization Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. to remove the illegal information, Roskomnadzor has decided to apply coercive measures in the form of informing Internet search engines about the violation of Russian legislation by a foreign entity," the statement read.