Wikipedia.org has just announced the biggest ban in its history in an effort to stop exploitation of its online resources.  The Church of Scientology has been "excommunicated" from the site, so to speak, with all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associate banned from making contributions.

The decision was reached by the Arbitration Committee, the site's governing body.  The decision took a record amount of time and ended in a 10 to 0 vote, with one abstention.  The Committee cited a lengthy record of abuse and inaccuracy by members of the Church of Scientology.

Wikipedia is currently the eighth largest site on the internet, and perhaps the largest source of compiled information.  However, it has been forced to begin blocking destructive users, despite its motto that it’s "the free encyclopedia anyone can edit".  The Scientology ban is the first time a major organization has been evicted from the site, though.

Under the ruling, Scientology IPs are "to be blocked as if they were open proxies", though individual contributors can request exemptions. 

The reason for the ban, according to the admins, is overwhelming evidence of biased edits.   Scientologists, according to the admins were "openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities, damaging Wikipedia's reputation for neutrality."

The Scientologists also use a steady stream of different addresses to try to mask their actions.  States one arbitrator, "Our alternatives are to block them entirely, or checkuser every 'pro-Scientology' editor on this topic. I find the latter unacceptable.  It is quite broad, but it seems that they're funneling a lot of editing traffic through a few IPs, which make socks impossible to track."

Tory Christman, a former officer in the Church of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs, recently revealed details on the Church's sneaky internet activity.  He claims, "The guys I worked with posted every day all day.  It was like a machine. I worked with someone who used five separate computers, five separate anonymous identities...to refute any facts from the internet about the Church of Scientology."

Mr. Christman left the church in 2000; however, he believes they likely have continued this kind of behavior.  He and other former members claim the Church has gone to extremes to maintain its reputation and punish members who leave it.

The Church of Scientology has made news in recent years for suing or threatening to sue YouTube and others over leaked materials.  Last year when an embarrassing video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise leaked, the organization secured its removal off YouTube.  Hackers under the name "anonymous" responded by attacking the organization's sites and organizing worldwide protests against it.