Wikipedia blocks the entire nation of Qatar

Link:

Gerard said routing an entire country's traffic _ even that of a tiny nation like Qatar _ through a single IP address is unusual. He said Wikipedia is looking for a way to refine its capabilities to block problem individual users in the Gulf state without hamstringing the entire country.
. . .
Administrators reversed the block once they discovered the scope.

"Our apologies to the people of Qatar," Gerard said on Wednesday. "It was a mistake. We won't do it again _ unless somebody slips up, in which case it will be remedied quickly."
. . .
Wikipedia administrators had responded to an unusually high level of spam and fraudulent posts by blocking contributions from the numeric Internet address tied to those posts.

But that resulted in the accidental blocking of the entire nation because Qatar's sole telecom, Q-Tel, funnels all Internet traffic through that single address, a practice that allows the country to monitor and censor its users, said David Gerard, Wikipedia's London-based spokesman.

None of that could occur here of course.