Wiki co-founder gags critic

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has reportedly banned a critic from his page on the website for raising his friendship with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and support of work funded by the authoritarian Kazakh regime.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has reportedly banned a critic from his page on the website for raising his friendship with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and support of work funded by the authoritarian Kazakh regime.

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Kazakhstan's government set up a foundation called WikiBilim last year to create material for a Kazakh Wikipedia. The organisation is backed by Kazakhstan's sovereign oil wealth fund and run by Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, an ex-government official.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation that runs Wikipedia, provided a 16,600 dollars grant from visitor donations.

According to the Telegraph, Wikipedia contributors in the West have questioned whether the Wikimedia Foundation and Wales should be supporting a project backed by a government that has been accused of launching 'crackdown on free speech'.