China has recently banned all language versions of the free encyclopedia on Wikipedia, after the ban previously included the Chinese version of Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org), but now extends to all versions of the free encyclopedia.
According to OONI's Torrent Internet Monitoring Service, the ban began last month and any attempt to access any Wikipedia page from within China, regardless of language, would lead to a communication error.
The ban is intended for any sub-version or language version of Wikipedia, regardless of whether or not this version exists, without targeting any other Wikimedia resources, except zh.wikinews.org.
A separate watchdog group, Greatfire.org, says China has blocked access to Wikipedia since April 22, as local users have stressed on China's social networking platforms.
China Telecom has banned access to the Chinese version of Wikipedia since at least 2016, and all versions of Wikipedia will now join nearly 10,000 banned domains in China.
It is not yet clear why the Chinese government has banned sites in all its publications, but it may be temporary, as observers expect the ban to be related to the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which took place on June 4, 1989.
The Chinese government generally banned all discussions on the event, which led to the use of military force by the Chinese authorities to crush a pro-democracy movement led by students.
China has selectively blocked some pages on Wikipedia, which was critical of its communist-led government, but in 2015 it began blocking access to Wikipedia in Mandarin after the encyclopedia website moved to using HTTPS encryption by default to protect users from unwarranted surveillance.
The Wikimedia Foundation, based in San Francisco and running Wikipedia, has not commented on the ban so far.
Users can access the monitored website from within China by installing a VPN service, which will allow them to connect to the Internet via a server located outside the country.
China has recently tried to crack down on the use of VPN services, with a threat of fines against anyone using unauthorized VPN services.
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