MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Russia’s mass media and communications watchdog (Roskomnadzor) said on Tuesday it has once again demanded Wikipedia removes false information about the special military operation in Ukraine.
"On the basis of the Russian prosecutor general’s office request, Roskomnadzor on April 4 issued a demand to Wikipedia’s administration to stop disseminating untrue socially important information. In recent time, Wikipedia has been posting a lot of materials containing false information about the special military operation in Ukraine and the Russian armed forces’ actions. Wikipedia has become a new tool for non-stopping information attacks on Russians," the watchdog said, adding that Wikipedia publications mislead internet users by means of untrue information. Moreover, Wikipedia is promoting "solely anti-Russian interpretation of the situation."
According to the watchdog, Wikipedia’s administration has failed to implement previously issued requests. "Roskomnadzor has already demanded Wikipedia remove untrue information about the situation in Ukraine. This demand has been ignored by the internet resource’s administration," it said.
Under Russia’s laws, an internet resource owner is subject to an administrative fine of up to four million rubles (47,322 US dollars under the current exchange rate) for legal entities should it fail to implement the watchdog’s request to delete illegal information.
The Russian mass media watchdog said earlier that Wikipedia would be brought to administrative liability for not removing illegal information. It has twice warned Wikipedia of the necessity to delete false reports about the special military operation in Ukraine.