Malaysian government warns citizens about Uncyclopedia
This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. |
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Satire site Uncyclopedia, a parody of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has been labeled by the Malaysian government as dangerous. The Internal Security Department of Malaysia issued the warning today, saying that the site has "messages and information insulting Malaysia".
The warning notes the creation date of the website as being 5 January 2005, and hosted by Wikia, Inc., both of which are correct. However, it claims Wikia owns Wikipedia; Wikipedia is a charitable non-profit website owned by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, while Wikia is an independent, for-profit company.
The report evidently mentions that Uncyclopedia covers Malaysian "history, culture, the political leaders, the government, the national song and the name / history of the national flag," none of which is "correct". They accuse the website of helping to reinforce a bad international image of their country.
There are no reports of the site being blocked from access within the country, only this statement, which urges Malaysians not to circulate the content.
Uncyclopedia's article on Malaysia begins:
The site has fired back with a parody article posted at the site under their UnNews section, titled Uncyclopedia Internal Security Department warns on Malaysia. The article suggests that the "Internal Security Department of the Uncyclomedia Foundation," which is a facetious and fictitious parent organization of Uncyclopedia, identifies Malaysia "as a dangerous country... It warned its people not to use the country today."
There are forty-seven individual language editions of Uncyclopedia, including Tolololpedia, which is written in Bahasa Melayu, the Malay language. This is in addition to fictional "language" editions which include Oscar Wilde, Newspeak, N00b, White Supremacist, and Re: PharmaccgRy.
Sources
[edit]- "Malaysia Internal Security Department Warns Its People on Anti-Malaysia Websites" — Kwong Wah Yit Poh, January 15, 2008
- Lemak Lemang. "Alert over Uncyclopedia on Malaysia" — CNET Networks, January 15, 2008
- "Malaysia", Uncyclopedia. Retrieved on January 15, 2008
- "List of Uncyclopedias". Uncyclopedia. Retrieved on January 15, 2008