Top Wikipedia editor arrested in Belarus over ‘fake news’

POLICE in Belarus have arrested a senior Wikipedia editor and accused him of spreading “fake news” by editing the online encyclopedia’s entry on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Wikipedia Russia yesterday warned its editors that they should only make changes or contribute to articles on the war from outside Russia and Belarus in order to avoid a similar fate.

“Personal data of Wikipedians began to appear on anonymous Telegram channels, and one author has already been severely arrested,” it said in a statement yesterday.

“We recommend that all Wikipedia users in Russia and Belarus hide their data and edit articles about the war only from external accounts.”

Various exiled opposition Russian and Belarusian websites later named the author as Mark Bernstein, listed as one of the world’s most prolific Wikipedia editors with more than 200,000 edits credited to him.

They said that the Belarusian security forces had confiscated all his smartphones and laptops and taken him away for interrogation to answer charges that he had been spreading “fake antiRussian information”.

A photograph, with the watermark of the Belarus security services, has appeared online which showed Mr Bernstein looking worn and weary.

A video of the arrest, which had been widely quoted, appears to have been taken down from the Telegram messaging channel.

A noted advocate of free speech, on his own Wikipedia entry Mr Bernstein is quoted as saying that his “best achievement” was a 2009 article on the website about censorship in the Soviet Union. One of his roles at Wikipedia was to advise younger editors.

Russia’s government has outlawed any criticism of the war, which it instead refers to as a “special operation”.

Belarus allowed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to launch his main invasion force into Ukraine from Belarus and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has also promised to send his forces to support Russian forces.

Mr Lukashenko has been described as a “pariah” after cracking down on demonstrators in 2020. Russia has banned various Western media outlets, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and has threatened to ban the San Francisco-based Wikipedia after Russian officials said that it was sending “false messages” about war casualties.

‘Wikipedians personal data began to appear on Telegram channels, and one author has already been severely arrested’