While protests rage on the streets over political cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, the virtual dispute across the Internet is no less intense.

Wikipedia, the Web encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone, posted the original Danish newspaper page from last September showing the cartoons, along with extensive links for background and discussion. But when the Wikipedia site itself was vandalized recently, editors decided Wednesday to temporarily disable the feature, which allows new and anonymous users to change content.

Some news outlets that elected not to host or print the images themselves did provide links to them through Wikipedia page, including the Seattle Weekly and The Seattle Times.

The issue promises to test the boundaries of speech on the Internet, as well as the concept of collaborative information on the Web.