Russians Rush To Download The Whole Of Wikipedia In Fear It May Soon Get Banned

As the invasion of Ukraine trudges on, Russian citizens have found themselves increasingly isolated from the rest of the online world. 

Not only has a major broadband service provider cut off the backbone internet network in the country, platforms including Adobe’s Creative Cloud, Facebook, and Instagram have either terminated access or been banned by local authorities. 

Now, sensing the crackdown could continue to further restrict residents’ access to information, Russians have been downloading the entire archive of the local-language Wikipedia for safekeeping.

Mashable reported that earlier this month, Roskomnadzor, the nation’s censors, had threatened to block Wikipedia following the site’s publication of an entry titled ‘Russian Invasion of Ukraine (2022)’.

While downloading the entirety of the world’s foremost online encyclopedia could seem daunting, non-profit organization Kiwix has compiled all of the 1.8 million Russian-language articles into a torrent for downloaders. 

The 29GB file has been downloaded 150,100 times just this month so far—a striking 4,000% spike as compared to January 2022. According to Slate, Russians now make up 42% of all traffic on the site.

“We had something similar back in 2017 when Turkey blocked Wikipedia, but this one is just another dimension,” said Stephane Coillet-Matillon, leader of Kiwix.

[via Mashable and Slate, cover image via Casimirokt | Dreamstime.com]