Web encyclopaedia Wikipedia temporarily banned anonymous posts to its site from people in Qatar after repeated reports of net vandalism. The 12-hour ban hit large numbers of people in the country because all web traffic in Qatar is routed through a single net address. Wikipedia says pages about the US, sex and the birthday of the prophet Muhammad were vandalised. The site is run by its users and anyone is free to alter posts in good faith.
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, wrote: "This IP number was temporarily blocked for less than 12 hours, and a block of an entire nation would go absolutely against Wikipedia policy." In an earlier post on the Wikipedia site, it said: "Anonymous editing from this internet address is currently disabled due to a large volume of spam and vandalism that we have received from this address."
Florence Devouard, chair of the Wikimedia foundation, told BBC News: "None of us is against any country. We come from countries all over the world. Not only the USA, not only Europe. We are aware some of our very good editors are sometimes blocked after a vandalism spree, this happened just a few days ago in Thailand. We unblock the people as soon as possible. We wish to allow the maximum numbers of people, from everywhere. We just have to protect ourselves from vandals from time to time."