Requests for comment/The incitement of hatred in Russian Wikipedia towards Falun Gong

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When you open the main page of Wikipedia, you immediately see this statement: "Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia", but unfortunately, we ran into the opposite meaning of this statement in Russian Wikipedia.

Falun Gong is a peaceful meditation practice which originated in China. It has been widely spreading since 1992 in China as well as many other countries. In 1999 the Chinese government began to illegally persecute the followers of this teaching. Many are wondering: why are they being persecuted? Falun Gong became very popular in the 1990s in China, and the number of people practicing Falun Gong even exceeded the number of members of the Communist Party. This practice was banned in China because of its growing popularity, and because the main principles of Falun Gong (Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance) are opposite of the ideology of struggle and violence promoted by the party.

To justify the repression of Falun Gong, the Chinese authorities fabricated the so-called self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and many other false "facts." After that, the label "heretic sect" was placed on Falun Gong. [1]

The information about Falun Gong can be found in Wikipedia in 43 languages, but only in the article about Falun Gong in Russian Wikipedia, one can find the term "sect" in relation to this practice. Also, large portion of the article consists of false information. For example, the article falsefully states that Falun Gong practitioners are ripping their stomachs out and burning themselves, killing relatives, and how in the homeland of Falun Gong the government is "good" to Falun Gong practitioners, and how the government is "painlessly" helping practitioners abandon the practice. Even the existence of the persecution of Falun Gong and the extraction of organs from innocent practitioners is being questioned https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Фалуньгун

It started when in 2013, almost simultaneously in the history of revisions of the article about Falun Gong, three members appeared - Tempus, Kroniker and Cathy. They immediately began to pour negative information into the article about Falun Gong, which fuels the hatred in the society towards this practice and its followers. Here is the history of edits and clear evidence of appearance of the word "sect" in the preamble: [2].

Every time other participants tried to make any corrections to the article, these members canceled all the edits in the matter of a few minutes. The history of the article from 2013 shows that it is impossible to find any compromise or consensus with these participants, they openly bend the rules and prevent neutral and meaningful information based on authoritative sources, from being added to the article about Falun Gong [3] than violate the rule WP:CONS.

Prior to appearance of these participants in 2013, article about Falun Gong in Russian Wikipedia did not contain so many [lieshttps://ru.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Фалуньгун&diff=55871314&oldid=55439918] .

In 2015, Tim Vtln has attempted to introduce a neutral version of the article [4], which was written with consideration of authoritative sources. This article neutrally outlines the information about the ban of Falun Gong in China and about organ harvesting. In general, Tim’s article explained in an impartial way what Falun Gong is. I think that this option could satisfy both sides of the conflict. However, Tempus, Cathy and Kroniker were not satisfied with this version, as for them, the neutrality of the article is not important and they have deleted the article within three hours [5].

Unfortunately, the Wikipedia community in Russia is ignoring this issues and makes no effort to help in any way to solve this problem.

Appeals to the administrators forum did not yield any results: [6] The appeals to the mediators and to the Arbitration Committee also did not help, Here are the answers of the mediators: [7] [8]

The Arbitration Committee rejects applications, commenting on this statement: “The Arbitration Committee does not work on the content of the articles, including the enforcement of rules on neutrality, on original research, on the weightiness of the presentation, and other matters. Improvements of the articles are reached through the search for consensus and constructive interaction on the pages of discussions.” . [9] [10]

All methods to resolve the conflict were exhausted. At the Wiki conference in Moscow in 2016, a Wikipedia participant asked Jimmy Wales about the violation of Wikipedia rules in an article about Falun Gong: [11]

Recently, we learned that Russian Wikipedia has a group of so-called "anti-cultists", led by the famous "sectarian" Mr. A. Dvorkin, who controls the content of articles about religious themes. In the film -vorikiviki-pedia-chast- first.html "Orthodox Lobby in Russian Wikipedia", this situation is described in detail, and reflects the real current situation in Russian Wikipedia.

Dear world community of Wikipedia! This situation related to Falun Gong is not only about Russian citizens, followers of this self-improvement practice. Wikimedia's office receives numerous complaints about the content related to the article about Falun Gong in Russian Wikipedia from around the world.

Please draw attention to this problem that concerns a large number of people practicing Falun Gong in many countries around the world. The content of the article about Falun Gong in Russian Wikipedia, offends the honor and dignity of thousands of Russian-speaking people around the world. They are looking forward to your righteous actions towards this matter and hope you can help clean out Russian Wikipedia from the slander and defamation reflected at the present time in the article about Falun Gong in Russian Wikipedia. --Lana Lin (talk) 10:56, 26 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

At the English wikipedia this would be dealt with by consensus, if consensus agreed that Falun Gong was "A wonderful and noble spiritual practice" the article would say that, however if consensus agreed that Falun Gong was "An evil sect for selling kidneys" then the article would say that instead. The difference is in the group of editors working on the article, there is no other process, there is no right and wrong, there is no single truth. A community of like minded editors can change anything.Dougmcdonell (talk) 00:25, 20 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That is not how consensus works, Wikipedia is not a democracy and the strongest arguments should win 🏆 based on facts and not opinion, both would (well, unfortunately not as admins do treat it as a democracy) be struck down as violations of the neutral point of view, which is one of the 5 🕔 (five) pillars of Wikipedia, though I agree that such abuses against falun gong/falun dafa in the current state is against this policy, consensus isn't based on number of supporters but the best arguments. (and verifiable facts.) --Donald Trung (Talk 🤳🏻) (My global lock 😒🌏🔒) (My global unlock 😄🌏🔓) 08:45, 3 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Comment I think that a proper investigation could be in order as the Communist Party of China is known to use whatever outlets to spread false propaganda against falun gong practitioners (and believe me, I've only had negative experiences with these people, and I think that it's superstitious non-sense but I think 🤔 that of every religion), however the nominator should support this with diff's and demonstrate where and how there is bias against falun gong on Russian Wikipedia, and sources that are the Communist Party of China could (and should) be dismissed out of hand as "reliable sources" as they have a demonstrable bias against falun gong. --Donald Trung (Talk 🤳🏻) (My global lock 😒🌏🔒) (My global unlock 😄🌏🔓) 08:50, 3 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

And yes, the bias of the Communist Party of China can be demonstrated per w:en:Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China. --Donald Trung (Talk 🤳🏻) (My global lock 😒🌏🔒) (My global unlock 😄🌏🔓) 09:07, 3 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Mr. Donald Trung ,

I am ready to show the sources mentioned in the article about Falun Gong in Russian version of Wikipedia which are directly affiliated with the Chinese government:

1 A book about the problem of the cult «Falun Gong». «The Chinese association upon studying of cults». Kiev 2010. ISBN 978-966-15-4002-5 [12]

2 The heretical sect «Falun Gong». About a true essence of the heretical doctrine Falun Gong //Consulate general of the Chinese National Republic in St.-Petersburg [13]

3 Globa G.V. «Falungun in the shadow of a branchy cranberry» — К., 2011. — С. 48. — ISBN 978-966-15-4006-3. [14]

4 Lin Jun -Falun Gong «Organraub» ist umstritten // Kaiwind. — 20.12.2013. [15]

5 Sui Kai. German parliament: « organs harvesting from the living » is an unreasonable gossip// Kaiwind. — 08.01.2013. [16]

6. The state consul of the USA has denied hearings about « organs harvesting from the living » // Kaiwind. [17]

7. Hao Mai The government of New Zealand has denied hearings about « organs harvesting from the living »Хао Май Правительство Новой Зеландии снова опровергло слухи Фалуньгуна о извелений органов // CRIonline. — 06.03.2014.[18]

8. The extracts from «the disclosing of the secret about the Chinese crematorium»// Kaiwind. — 13.12.2012.[19]

9. «Chinese embassy denies organ harvesting report» // CTV Television Network, 06.07.2006 [20]

In two sections of the article about Falun Gong there is a considerable quantity of such sources as: Checks and refutations [21]. Falun Gong Policy towards the followers of Falun Gong.[22]

There were attempts on the discussion page to hold a debate because these sources are not authoritative and are affiliated: [23] [24] to remove the text from the section Policy towards the followers of Falun Gong [25]

We requested on the question to the mediation page [26]

Unfortunately there were any results in the problem decision.

Thank you for replying my inquiry in meta-wiki.--Lana Lin (talk) 18:40, 8 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have no contribution in ru:Фалуньгун and have only read a part of the discussion on its talk page because I see an RfC here. The situation looks as follows: the proposed version has no critics whatsoever, while its style is non-encyclopedical and in parts even advertising. As the version is proposed by a number of users who have virtually no other contribution and whose behaviour looks like a mix of distorsions and accusations, I am rather surprised that they are not yet banned for POV-pushing. Wikisaurus (talk) 05:03, 10 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone close this? "Falun Gong is a peaceful...violence promoted by the party." clearly shows that OP (whose only edits are on this RfC) tried to promote FLG propaganda but failed so he/she came here to complain. That's it. (Bonus: Tim Vtln who "introduced a neutral version of the article" was blocked in ruwiki for COI and the only user who endorsed OP here was blocked in meta)--Mongolian Beef (talk) 23:22, 12 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Dear forum participants! In Ru-Viki there has been a systematic rejection for a long time: a group of participants with certain views changes the meaning of articles′ content. Thus, the idea of Wikipedia of balance and neutrality has been discredited. In addition to Falun Gong issue so-called "anti-cultists" control articles relating to religious topics. Examples:

New religious movement https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Новое_религиозное_движение
Sect https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Секта
Cult https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Тоталитарная_секта
Dvorkin A.L. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Дворкин,_Александр_Леонидович
Portal credo https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Портал-Credo.ru
Massimo Intervigne https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Интровинье,_Массимо

In such circumstances it is extremely difficult to make any amendments for the articles mentioned above. Ru-Viki actively promotes the theme of "anti-sectarianism" and intolerance towards various religious denominations, spiritual teachings, etc. Mihvais (talk) 13:55, 12 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]