Type of site | Internet encyclopedia project |
|---|---|
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
| Created by | Italian wiki community |
| URL | it.wikipedia.org |
The Italian Wikipedia (Italian: Wikipedia in italiano) is the Italian-language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was started on 11 May 2001 and has over 1,994,000 articles. It is currently the 9th largest edition by article count.

Volunteers on the Italian Wikipedia decided they did not like a proposed law before the Italian Parliament. The proposal was from 4 to 6 October 2011. During this time, all of the site's articles were hidden. Wikipedia's administrators blocked the website which was being debated at the time in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament.
This was the first time that a Wikipedia had blanked all its content to protest. The Wikimedia Foundation released a statement on 4 October. The Foundation Board officially supported the short closing of Italian Wikipedia. In October 2011, the manifesto, which replaced the Italian Wikipedia, had been viewed approximately 19 million times. On 6 October 2011, the website content was put back. Wikipedia added a banner across the top of each page explaining the reason for the protest.
Italian newspaper Il Tempo journalist Alberto Di Majo described the closure of the Italian-language Wikipedia as an "unexpected merit" of the proposed law. Some people questioned whether a non-profit United States foundation should try to change laws written in Italy.