Wikipedia has formally banned the Church of Scientology from accessing and editing its own pages. A committee of 11 arbiters voted on Thursday to block all IP addresses connected to the church, and ban multiple accounts believed to be used by church members as well as critics of the religion.

The move was brought in after it was discovered that the Church had been editing Scientology-related articles and removing or adding information to promote the Church’s studies.

The Church of Scientology, founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, has had a long and controversial history online— dating back to Usenet groups, where critics maintain that Scientology is a cult that brainwashes its members and drains them financially.

“Each side wishes the articles within this topic to reflect their point of view and have resorted to battlefield editing tactics, with edits being abruptly reverted without any attempt to incorporate what is good, to maintain their preferred status quo,” the committee said in its decision.

Wikipedia has blocked IP addresses from the Church of Scientology because the group allegedly pushed its agenda with multiple edits. Content on Wikipedia is supposed to be neutral, and the arbitrators’ action is the first of its kind. Some observers criticized the Wikipedia decision, but the Center for Democracy and Technology approved.

To end the dispute, Wikipedia said that is has “broadly” blocked all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates and is treating them as if they were open proxies. Individual editors who were found to have clearly engaged in promoting an identifiable agenda “may be topic-banned” for up to one year, Wikipedia said.

The full uncensored newsgroup covering scientology, alt.religion.scientology, has been abuzz about the Wikipedia decision since news hit.