Wikipedia has banned the Church of Scientology from editing its online encyclopaedia after a long-running dispute between the group and its critics.
Any computer addresses "owned or operated" by the Church or associates linked to it have been blocked by the popular site.
It follows attempts by supporters and those opposed to the group to "slant" the Scientology page, according to Wikipedia editors.
The group are legally classified as a religion in the United States and have a slew of celebrity followers, including actors Tom Cruise and Will Smith.
But others have used the Wikipedia site to allege Scientology is a cult.
Some of those critics are also now barred from changing the group's page.
"Each side wishes the articles within this topic to reflect their point of view and have resorted to battlefield editing tactics," a committee of senior Wikipedia editors said.
"The worst casualties have been biographies of living people, where attempts have been repeatedly made to slant the article either towards or against the subject, depending on the point of view of the contributing editor."
The committee voted to support the ban after a six-month arbitration process.
A spokeswoman for Scientology, Karin Pouw, described some online entries as "hateful and erroneous".
She added: "We hope all this will result in more accurate and useful articles on Wikipedia."
Wikipedia is a free, multi-lingual online encyclopaedia which can be edited and added to by the public.
Contributors to ''Wikipedia'', the self-described free, online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, have voted to block the Church of Scientology from editing the encyclopedia. The arbitration committee voted to block the Church with 10 supporting the ban and 1 against it.

"All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies. Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses," a statement on ''Wikipedia's'' website explained.

The ban comes after an arbitration case that lasted six months, beginning in December 2008. The case was opened after contributors discovered that the Church had been editing Scientology-related articles and removing or adding information to promote the Church's studies.

"Editors have been openly editing articles related to Scientology from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities," added ''Wikipedia''. The committee says that the edits were damaging ''Wikipedia's'' neutral point of view policy. 

A "host of anti-Scientologist editors" were also banned from working on ''Wikipedia's'' Scientology-related articles. The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics", with the encyclopedia's articles on living persons among the "worst casualties".

Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw said some of the encyclopedia's articles had been "hateful and erroneous". She added: "We hope all this will result in more accurate and useful articles on Wikipedia." 

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said church members were only "confronting inaccuracies" on the internet: "The story that's being missed is there were people who were doing non-stop attacks on the church and using ''Wikipedia'' to do it. Those people have been banned." He said there had been no orchestrated campaign by church leaders to have members change ''Wikipedia'' articles: "The church is huge. Scientologists are going to say what they're going to say about their own religion."