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MANILA -- Netizens warred with fact-checkers on the Wikipedia page of a United Nations (UN) rapporteur critical of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, with changes coming mere minutes apart, early Friday morning.

Hours after the arrival of Agnes Callamard in the Philippines, a paragraph accusing her of being "a highly paid consultant of the Liberal Party of the Philippines dedicated into overthrowing one of the best President (Duterte) the country has ever had" (sic) appeared on her Wikipedia page.

The paragraph first added at 2:08 a.m. was removed, only to be put back minutes later.

The exchange continued several times, coming minutes apart, until the defacers finally gave up at 3:25 a.m.

Callamard is the UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings. She arrived in the Philippines this week, and attended the anniversary of the Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City on Thursday night. While President Rodrigo Duterte said she was in the country to investigate drug-related killings, she said she was here for an academic purpose.

She spoke during a forum at the University of the Philippines on Friday, and will attend sessions on Saturday.

During her talk, she condemned the Duterte administrations bloody war on drugs.

Wikipedia is a community-maintained encyclopedia covering a wide range of topics, with local versions in some countries. It urges its users to input fact-checked information, and to cite sources in articles.

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UN rapporteur's Wikipedia page defaced upon visit to PH - ABS-CBN News

BBC News

Turkish authorities block Wikipedia without giving reason BBC News However, the Hurriyet daily newspaper said Wikipedia had been asked to remove content by certain writers whom the authorities accuse of "supporting terror" and of linking Turkey to terror groups. The site had not responded to the demands, Hurriyet said ... Why Turkey Blocked Access to WikipediaThe Atlantic Wikipedia blocked in Turkey - Turkey BlocksTurkey Blocks IANSLIVE (@IANSLIVE) | TwitterTwitter Reuters -Facebook all 247 news articles »

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Turkish authorities block Wikipedia without giving reason - BBC News

mer Fatih Sayan, head of Turkeys Information and Communication Technologies Authority (Source: Hurriyet Daily News)

ANKARA, Turkey (Hurriyet Daily News)It is impossible to grant access to the worlds largest encyclopedia, Wikipedia, unless Turkeys judicial decisions are implemented, the head of the countrys telecommunications watchdog has said.

There are judicial processes that had been completed regarding some Wikipedia pages but, unfortunately, Wikipedia has not removed those pages. Turkey obeys the rule of law and what will be said on the issue has already been said by the courts. It is impossible for Wikipedia to be opened without the implementation of those decisions, Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) head mer Fatih Sayan said at the opening ceremony of the Turkey Informatics Summit on May 3.

Sayan said the country is a civilization of knowledge, while expressing his sadness over the access ban.

He also said authorities were open to any kind of cooperation on condition that the website administration abide by the law to implement judicial decisions so as to permit access.

We can discuss it Freedom is not one-sided. Turkey has the rule of law. Everyone should [act] within the law. No one has the right to say, I do not recognize the Turkish courts. I also want to express that we are ready to provide all kinds of support to re-open Wikipedia, Sayan said.

Sayan, meanwhile, urged the online encyclopedia to confirm the information it provides.

My call is that Wikipedia should solve problems that led to its closure and the system should be rehabilitated at this point if required. We care about the latest developments in the fight against fake news on the internet We find WikiTribune initiative by Wikipedia officials positive. Fighting against fake news is beneficial for all of us, Sayan said.

The telecommunications watchdog stated on April 29 that it had blocked access to Wikipedia, citing a law allowing it to ban access to websites deemed obscene or a threat to national security.

The Ankara 1st Criminal Court of Peace later ordered the ban after the Wikipedia administration reportedly refused to remove two English-language pages claiming that Ankara channeled support to jihadists in Syria.

In response, the Wikimedia Foundation appealed the court ruling that came after the administrative measure against the website.

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Impossible to Access Wikipedia in Turkey Without Judicial Order - Asbarez Armenian News

BBC News

China to launch Wikipedia rival in 2018 BBC News China is to launch an online version of its national encyclopaedia next year, to compete with Wikipedia. Officials said more than 20,000 people had been hired to work on the project, which will feature 300,000 entries at about 1,000 words each. Tired of Just Blocking Wikipedia, China's Government Wants to Create Its Own Online EncyclopediaSlate Magazine (blog) China is recruiting 20000 people to create its own WikipediaEngadget China is making an official version of Wikipedia QuartzQuartz Ars Technica -Wired.co.uk -CNET -South China Morning Post all 25 news articles »

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China to launch Wikipedia rival in 2018 - BBC News

The Chinese government is recruiting 20,000 people to create an online encyclopedia thatwill bethecountrys own, China-centric version of Wikipedia, or as one official put it, like a Great Wall of culture.

Known as the Chinese Encyclopedia, the countrys national encyclopedia will go online for the first time in 2018, and the government has employed tens of thousands of scholars from universities and research institutes who will contribute articles in more than 100 disciplines. The end result will be a knowledge base with more than 300,000 entries, each of which will be about 1,000 words long.

The Chinese Encyclopaedia is not a book, but a Great Wall of culture, Yang Muzhi, the editor-in-chief of the project and the chairman of the Book and Periodicals Distribution Association of China, said. He added that China was under pressure from the international community to produce an encyclopedia thatwill guide and lead the public and society.

The need for an online reference encyclopedia is in part a result ofthe Chinese governmentblocking access to Wikipedia. Chinese internet companies like Baidu and Qihoo 360 operate their own online encyclopedias, but none are capable of matching Wikipedia in terms of scale and breadth of information.

The aim of the new version of the Chinese encyclopedia is to showcase Chinas latest science and technology developments, promote historical heritage, increase cultural soft power, and strengthen the core values of socialism, according to Yang, who stressed thatthe goal isnt to mimic Wikipedia: We have the biggest, most high-quality author team in the world. Our goal is not to catch up, but overtake.

At over 720 million users, China has the worlds largest internet population by a large margin, but it also has some of the worlds most restrictive internet laws.

President Xi Jinping has publicly called for greater cooperation among nations to develop and govern the internet, but he and his Communist Party have overseen ever-growing efforts to control what information and services Chinese citizens have access to online. The so-called Great Firewall of China is the most sophisticated censorship tool in use anywhere in the world today, blocking the parts of the internet the government deems unsavory.

It is unclear just how much the Chinese government will influence the topics being covered in next years edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia, but one of the scholars invited to take part believes the system needs to be updated to reflect the current era.

The original system is too outdated, Professor Huang Annian, a historian currently based in the U.S.,said, adding that the new encyclopedia needs to adapt to the development trend in 21st century, respect history, and face the future. I think it is necessary to emphasize the globalization of the world economy, political democracy, and cultural diversity.

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China is recruiting 20000 people to write its own Wikipedia - VICE News