Which church banned which?

You will be surely forgiven for forgetting it, but exactly eleven years ago, Wired reported that Wikipedia had just banned the Church of Scientology from editing any articles. Some points of that story, and its coverage, are worth remembering:

The case, which was the fourth in as many years, was about more than 400 articles about Scientology, and the corresponding “long-running, fierce edit wars” between Scientology editors - using multiple accounts - against critics of Scientology who fought those changes by citing their own or one another’s self-published material.

Wired mystically called this a “landmark ruling”, and a “punishment”, just like the rulings of national Supreme Courts, or Inquisition Tribunals: “It’s a punishment for repeated and deceptive editing of articles related to the controversial religion. The landmark ruling comes from the inner circle of a site that prides itself on being open and inclusive”.

The explanation by Evgeni Morozov of why Wikipedia was wrong to ban Scientology is equally interesting:

• “I think that banning them from Wikipedia is going to be counterproductive. Unfortunately, it presents the Wikipedia admins/editors as a non-neutral group that opposes a particular set of ideas."
• “In a way, Wikipedia’s decision opens Pandora’s box : why allow Christians to edit articles on Christianity, for example?"

Good food for thought, even eleven years later, isn’t it?

For more details, you can (of course!) read the… Wikipedia entry about Church of Scientology editing on Wikipedia.

(This post was drafted in May 2020, but only put online in August, because… my coronavirus reports, of course)