Lessons Learned from Indonesia's government Wikimedia SUL Page block
Speakers
Jeromi Mikhael is a longtime Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons user who has been contributing to the projects since 2018 by writing articles (esp. biographies) and contributing photographs (esp. prominent people). He is a member of the Wikimedia Indonesia user group and the Wikimedia Jakarta Community and has been involved in several community projects such as the Wikipatriot and Hibah Buku. He is currently writing on Indonesian ambassadors at the English Wikipedia and doing administrator duties at the Indonesian Wikipedia.
Abstract
This lighting talks aims to inform the audience regarding restrictions implemented by the Indonesian government on Wiki projects auth page, which went effective on 25 March this year. Although this restriction did not impact the readability of Wiki project, it prevents users from doing their contribution, thus effectively limiting any contents from Indonesia. This talk would dive in to this thinly veiled censorship attempt by discussing the background of the restrictions, which goes back all the way to half a decade ago. This restriction has its roots from WMF's refusal to comply with government's electronic permit, as well as the dynamics of domestic politics that led to the existence of a powerful govt internet watchdog. The talk would then continue to discuss the impact of the block on the community, reactions, the steps taken afterwards, and lessons learned for the general public and communities under similar threat
Additional information
My talk relates most clearly to the first word in the theme. The restrictions implemented by the government obviously impeded the freedom for contributors from Indonesian to volunteering on ensuring the Wiki project's up and running, ranging from menial tasks such as regular housekeeping and typo checks, to actions that maintains the survivability of the project such as vandal countermeasures and composing articles. Freedom of doing this is of the utmost importance to Wikipedians, and by listening to this presentation the audience would have a grasp of what it feels lime facing a restriction from the govt on contributing.
All freedom loving audience that wants to hear the tale of government censorship and the fight against it would certainly be of the most welcome. To keep things simple and understandable I'd ensure that all local terminologies and schemes would be fully explained in a short yet clear way so as to ensure the continuous engagement of the audience. That way, the audience might implement mitigations for similar probable restrictions and be inspired to advocate for internet freedom in their respective countries.
Everyone can participate in this session