This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Wikipedia has banned contributions from the Church of Scientology to end a long-running dispute over the editing of Scientology-related articles on the site.

The online encyclopaedia, which is edited by users, has ruled that all IP addresses owned and operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates are to be blocked as if they were open proxies.

A long list of individual editors are prohibited from contributing to articles on Scientology and face having their accounts suspended if they breach the ban.

This is the fourth Scientology-related dispute on Wikipedia in four years. The crux of the disagreement is so-called "edit-warring" between the Church of Scientology and its followers and critics to try to portray it in either a favourable or negative light. Wikipedia policy is that articles should be neutral.

The technology news website The Register, which broke the story, reports that the Church of Scientology has a well-organised operation to challenge criticism of Scientology on the internet.

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