Some prominent Wikipedia editors are discussing opening a new door to the site in the most secretive place on the Internet, the "dark web", to protect its readers from prying eyes.

It's not just some of the world's most repressive regimes - China, Iran (.pdf link), Turkey, and Russia - that block their citizens from accessing the site's entries in part or in whole.  Even socially liberal countries like the United Kingdom and France have attempted to censor portions of the site in the past.

Users can already access Wikipedia using ultra-secure browsers such as Tor, which encrypts web traffic and routes it through a series of different IP addresses.  But it would be even more secure if offered as a hidden service on the dark web known as an "onion", which governments could not easily censor or block.

Last week, former Vice President of Wikimedia Italy Cristian Consonni put such a proposal on Wikimedia-L, a listserv used by the top editors and executives.  Some of the respondents wanted to go a step further and prevent Tor users from having the ability to edit the site, since ne'er-do-wells have been known to use that browser to remove good information or post bad stuff.