Hi all, Our understanding is that there is currently no country where only HTTPS access to Wikipedia is blocked. In Iran <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Wikipedia#Iran>, the government appears to have been blocking select Wikipedia articles at different times.[1] The Great Firewall of China <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Wikipedia#China> has also been blocking select articles on Chinese and English Wikipedia.[2] While it previously blocked all HTTPS access to Chinese Wikipedia, that block has more recently been extended to HTTP access as well. The transition to HTTPS by default therefore shouldn't block anyone's access to all of Wikipedia due to censorship. Rather it should help prevent censorship of select Wikipedia articles, which we know is a problem in different parts of the world.
I should also mention that while we try to be as transparent as possible in all our work (including holding community consultations around all major legal policies and providing frequent updates on our work), there are very limited situations where public discussions could actually hurt free access to Wikipedia. If you have thoughts about the evolving censorship landscape, feel free to email me directly, if possible via encrypted email. With respect to Wikipedia Zero, we have been working with mobile carriers for over a year to make sure that they are able to provide access free of data charges over HTTPS. For many carriers, this required them to adjust the technical implementation of how they waive data charges. We are now finally ready to transition Wikipedia Zero access to HTTPS by default. Best, Yana [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Wikipedia#Iran [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Wikipedia#China On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 6:27 AM, Tanweer Morshed <wiki.tanw...@gmail.com> wrote: > But won't the people in Iran or China would be able to access the Wikimedia > sites through http instead of https? And what about accessing through https > within Wikipedia Zero? Is cost-free access available through https? > > On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 12:54 PM, geni <geni...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On 14 June 2015 at 05:21, Comet styles <cometsty...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > China and Iran blocks https (and WMF thinks https is more secure than > > > http when it can be EASILY blocked lol) > > > > China is currently blocking HTTP and has done so quite frequently. The > > ability to block is largely unrelated to security. > > > > > > > > > so people in these countries > > > used wikipedia on http, so some here think that these countries are > > > spying on them by forcing them to use http, but that https block in > > > this countries was NOT to target wikipedia, it was to target social > > > networking sites and american based email sites like yahoo and gmail > > > etc..but now by moving to HTTPS, we have now become a target for those > > > countries......well done.. > > > > > > That doesn't make sense. HTTPs doesn't hide the domain. The country can > > still tell that someone is visiting wikipedia rather than say facebook. > > What becomes more difficult is telling what a person is viewing on > > wikipedia. > > > > > > > > > and to add to that, people who used > > > wikipedia in those countries to find the "truth" about whats happening > > > in their country and other regions can no longer do so since its > > > blocked..Well Done again WMF.. > > > > > > Well actually no they couldn't if they had a government with active > > blocking measures. With HTTP traffic governments and ISPs can (and did) > > block individual pages that they don't like. > > > > > > > > > > > > Someone has to be fired for this. > > > > > > > > That would seem to be something of an over reaction even if you disagree > > with the decision. > > > > -- > > geni > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > -- > Regards, > Tanweer Morshed > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/guidelineswikimedi...@lists.wikimedia.org> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Yana Welinder Senior Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext. 6867 @yanatweets <https://twitter.com/yanatweets> NOTICE: This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. In other words, IANYL <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL>. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
