X owner Elon Musk has urged the people to not donate any money to Wikipedia as it has allowed itself to be misused and ‘controlled by far-Left activists’. Musk has accused Wikipedia of running Left narratives in the past too. While taking to X, he referred to a report by the Pirate Wires, a US-based news website, that alleged “a coordinated campaign led by around 40 Wikipedia editors has worked to delegitimize Israel, present radical Islamist groups in a favourable light, and position fringe academic views on the Israel-Palestine conflict as mainstream over past years, intensifying after the October 7 attack.”
Musk in his post said, “Wikipedia is controlled by far-Left activists. People should stop donating to them.”
Wikipedia is controlled by far-left activists.
People should stop donating to them. https://t.co/Cjq2diadFY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2024
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Wikipedia Is Favouring Hamas?
A recent report from Pirate Wires highlights that six weeks after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, a Wikipedia editor managed to remove references to Hamas’ 1988 charter, which called for the extermination of Jews and the annihilation of Israel, from the group’s Wikipedia page.
Additionally, there were attempts to advance Iranian government interests in various articles, including significant deletions of documented human rights abuses committed by officials from the Islamic Republic Party, according to the US news site.
Wikipedia And It’s History Of Deleting Stuff To Control Narrative
In India, Wikipedia has faced criticism for being exploited by so-called “super editors,” veteran users who have the ability to lock certain topics to control narratives. Last month, Asian News International (ANI), one of South Asia’s largest news agencies, filed a ₹2 crore defamation lawsuit against Wikipedia’s parent organization, alleging that it allowed malicious edits on a page concerning the agency.
Following this, the Delhi High Court issued a contempt notice to Wikipedia for failing to provide information about the edits made to ANI’s entry, as the agency claimed the platform did not disclose details about the three accounts involved in the changes.
Eventually, Wikipedia removed the contentious entry that led to ANI’s lawsuit. On October 25, the Delhi High Court expressed concerns about Wikipedia’s open-editing model, with Justice Subramonium Prasad labeling it “dangerous” due to the unrestricted access for public editing, as reported by the legal news site Bar and Bench.
Wikipedia has emerged as a battleground for narratives regarding the Manipur crisis, with claims that far-left editors rely solely on sources they have directly or indirectly influenced. The presence of malicious edits made by “super editors,” who lock these entries on the platform, is viewed as a significant issue.
