Russia’s answer to Wikipedia: Propaganda or common sense encyclopedia?

In late August, Russian authorities launched what they described as a substitute for Wikipedia — Runiversalis or “Runi”.

The state-supported web site labels itself “an encyclopedia of widespread sense” and bares many resemblances to the world-famous Wikipedia web site, which is written and edited by volunteers throughout greater than 300 languages.

The Runiversalis authors even declare that they’re former editors and directors of Wikipedia.

The location was launched by Moscow amid the conflict in Ukraine, as many web platforms confronted censorship stress from the Kremlin.

Russian authorities have fined and threatened to silence Wikipedia for publishing “prohibited supplies” and “pretend” content material concerning the conflict.

Search engines like google and yahoo at the moment are compelled to tell on-line customers in Russia that Wikipedia violates the nation’s laws and corporations face penalties for intentionally sharing so-called “pretend information” about Russian entities overseas.

Moscow has criminalised using the phrases “invasion” or “conflict” and as a substitute refers to its aggression in Ukraine as a “particular navy operation”.

And the Runiversalis article concerning the “particular navy operation” repeats the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia needs to “denazify” and “demilitarise” Ukraine.

The web site additionally states that its authors will solely promote “conventional values” on topics resembling gender and sexuality, elevating issues from the LGBTQ group.

“Editors will proceed not from what’s written in Western scientific journals which have succumbed to stress from the LGBT foyer,” claimed an announcement by Runiversalis on their Telegram web page. 

“When one begins to learn Runiversalis, you discover that it is a platform for Kremlin narratives of disinformation and propaganda,” stated Eto Buziashvili, a Analysis Affiliate for the Caucasus on the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Analysis Lab (DFRLab) in an interview with Euronews.

“One other attention-grabbing level is while you go right down to the references, the overwhelming majority of the sources are Kremlin official platforms just like the Ministry of Protection or Kremlin-controlled media,” stated the researcher. 

In her report, Eto Buziashvili wrote that Runiversalis is not any Wikipedia. 

“Wikipedia has clear modifying insurance policies and editorial oversight. Runiversalis, in distinction, is a propaganda web site masquerading as a wiki, utilizing the stylistic trappings of Wikipedia to present it a veneer of credibility.”

A latest report by the DFRLab discovered that Runiversalis had endured a “tough begin” on-line.

The web site grew to become briefly unavailable only some days after its launch resulting from a cyberattack.

In line with its Telegram web page, Runiversalis was restored on September 12 earlier than being focused in one other cyberattack, which did not take down the web site.