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How To Get Around The Wikipedia Blackout – Solutions Within

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4 Comments on How To Get Around The Wikipedia Blackout – Solutions Within

Undoubtedly many of you are bemoaning the fact that there is a Wikipedia blackout today. It’s a bit like when there’s a tube strike – you need to get from A to B for an important job interview, but the normal route is unusable. In this instance however, it’s more likely that there are students across the world trying to finish papers and reports for a deadline today – they know it’s almost a given that the information they require is available somewhere else on the internet, it’s just that the most direct and convenient route to the answer they need is temporarily unavailable.

However, there is a Wikipedia blackout workaround or two at your disposal if today really is not the day to be blocked from the behemoth encyclopedia. Here are the ones we found out for ourselves:

1. Mobile Devices – I’ve managed to use Wikipedia on my iPhone without any difficulty today, so that is one option for a quick reference or settling a trivia question over a lunchtime pint with a colleague. I’ve also heard from a friend that it works on his Android device, so it’s possible that it works on all mobile devices.

2. Disabling JavaScript – This was spotted by a colleague here at SocialSafe, and will work for PC or Mac users. You can also access the full Wikipedia site on your web browser (I’ve only tried this on Chrome, so I don’t know how other browsers work), by disabling JavaScript. For Chrome users, from the settings button (looks like a spanner in the top right corner) click ‘Options’, and then select ‘Under the Bonnet’ from the left hand menu. Click on ‘Content Settings’, and then the third option down on that list is JavaScript. Click ‘Do not allow any site to run JavaScript’ and hey-presto, you’ve got Wikipedia back in your life.

This may not work for all browsers/devices, but it works for us so far. If you’ve found any other tricks to pull back the curtain and continue using Wikipedia that other users may find useful, then please by all means  post them in the comments section below.

4 comments

  1. Pingback: Anonymous Bring Down Department Of Justice In Retaliation To MegaUpload Strike | Media Sharing Blog | DADapp

  2. Wait until the page has loaded and all the information you want is accessible then press escape…the black out wont happen.

  4. There is an even simpler solution: – find the Wikipedia pages using Google and open the cached version.

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