Church of Scientology kicked off of Wikipedia

In what The Register is calling an exclusive they are reporting that Wikipedia has banned any and all contributions from all the IPs owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its minions associates. This decision by Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee in a vote of 10 – 0 (1 abstention) will take effect immediately.

While Wikipedia has been known for previous banning, some silly and some not so stupid, people who have been rather exuberant in their editing of the so-called facts in Wikipedia entries this is the first time they have officially barred edits from a high profile organization.

According to evidence turned up by admins in this long-running Wikiland court case, multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.” Leaning on the famed WikiScanner, countless news stories have discussed the editing of Scientology articles from Scientology IPs, and some site admins are concerned this is “damaging Wikipedia’s reputation for neutrality.”

One admin tells The Reg that policing edits from Scientology machines has been particularly difficult because myriad editors sit behind a small number of IPs and, for some reason, the address of each editor is constantly changing. This prevents admins from determining whether a single editor is using multiple Wikipedia accounts to game the system. In Wikiland, such sockpuppeting is not allowed.

I wonder if this means well see another case of Tom Cruise couch jumping as he rants against Wikipedia and shouts censroship.