• China has broadened its block of online encyclopedia Wikipedia to include all language editions.
• According to a report by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), China started blocking all language editions of Wikipedia last month.

BACKGROUND:

• Previously, most editions of Wikipedia — besides the Chinese language version, which was reportedly blocked in 2015 — were available.
• China’s online censorship apparatus — dubbed the ‘Great Firewall’ — blocks a large number of foreign sites in the country, such as Google, Facebook and The New York Times. Topics that are deemed too sensitive are also scrubbed.
• In November, China had removed over nine thousand accounts on Chinese social media platforms like messaging app WeChat and the Twitter-like Weibo that it accused of spreading politically harmful information and rumours.