Because they thought it was too ‘woke’ and wanted to burn the books.
FWIW you can download it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download
Edit: Lots of good answers. When I ask the question I mean the main site. We would all have access to it. Hell I downloaded the text yesterday on two computers. I mean could the masses ever be denied access to wikipedia in the only form they are used to?
Yes, but 1000 mirrors will pop up immediately if that happens. Internet is hard to control. They can’t even stop torrenting sites which is mostly used for piracy.