A detailed analysis of Wikipedia’s editing patterns has uncovered systematic changes to articles related to political content, revealing a focused effort to tie Donald Trump to fascism. The Wikipedia article on “Trumpism” contains 31 references to fascism, with more than half of the article’s content added by a single editor.
Vice President Kamala Harris did not plagiarize multiple passages in her 2009 book, Smart on Crime, campaign spokesman James Singer claimed in a Tuesday statement.
Wikipedia has given Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz the false military rank of ‘Command Sergeant Major’ even though he did not retire with that.
Wikipedia’s left-wing editors have declared the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish civil rights group that has become increasingly partisan over the past decade, an unreliable source on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Big Media and Bigger AI are at it again to exclude views that don’t fit their narrative.
Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, expressed his shock at recent statements made by the former CEO of its parent organization Wikimedia, Katherine Maher, who now serves as CEO of NPR.
Katherine Maher, NPR’s newly appointed CEO, is facing criticism over her past tweets as a veteran editor accuses the organization of leftist bias. But along the way, another interesting line of investigation has opened — how Maher wrecked Wikipedia by turning away from “free and open” discussions on the “online wikipedia” because that goal represents a “white male westernized construct.”
Wikipedia editors have been actively trying to minimize mention of plagiarism allegations raised against embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay. This has included removing mention of the allegations from the intro of her article and removing detailed descriptions of the alleged plagiarism. Some editors have also tried to minimize mention of Gay’s handling of campus antisemitism in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks against Israel.
The Wikipedia Arbitration Committee, likened to a “Supreme Court” for the site, suspended the privileges of member “Beeblebrox” for six months over claimed misconduct in the first such suspension in Wikipedia’s history. Among the alleged incidents, some concerned a now-former administrator with whom Beeblebrox had feuded. The same former administrator last month confessed to impersonating a Spanish indie singer and previously editing Wikipedia with an account banned for undisclosed paid editing, a common practice on the online encyclopedia.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro lashed out against Wikipedia on Monday, accusing the website of “lying” about the results of Sunday’s sham referendum to annex the Essequibo region, currently administered by neighboring Guyana.
X/Twitter owner Elon Musk slammed Wikipedia dysfunction on Monday, condemning the site for the biases of its hierarchy of elite editors, rejecting comparisons to his platform’s Community Notes feature, which does not have different tiers of editors. Musk couldn’t help trolling Wikipedia boss Jimmy Wales, responding with the site’s regular plea for donations with an offer of $1 billion if it changes its name to “Dickipedia.”
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger says the site has been hijacked by U.S. intelligence agencies for “information warfare” on the internet.
A report by independent journalist Lee Fang shows that Hunter Biden used specialist PR firms to edit Wikipedia to improve his image, using anonymous accounts to make the edits appear organic.
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, recently gave up his administrative privileges on the online encyclopedia after a request to review his conduct was brought before the site’s Arbitration Committee, often likened to a supreme court. The request concerned Wales publicly accusing a former member of the Committee of being involved with a paid editing scam without properly vetting the claims beforehand. Wales still retains limited privileges under his “founder” role.
Wikipedia could be banned from the UK as a result of impending censorship legislation, the charity that hosts the website has warned.
Elon Musk knocked Wikipedia on Tuesday after the online encyclopedia threatened to delete the page for “Twitter Files Investigations.”
Facebook (now known as Meta) reportedly has proposed a new plan to work with the Wikimedia Foundation to use AI to improve the accuracy of articles on the left-wing “encyclopedia” Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is introducing restrictions to prevent new and unregistered users from editing the article about economic recession. The “online encyclopedia,” which has demonstrated its leftist bias on many occasions, became the subject of intense criticism last week after editors made dozens of changes to the recession article to de-emphasize the broad consensus definition of recession — two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — instead parroting the Biden Administration’s talking points.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently criticized Wikipedia by stating that the free online encyclopedia is losing its objectivity, enraging the online encyclopedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. After Musk pointed out the fact that Wikipedia editors have significantly changed the definition of a recession to protect the Biden administration, Wales replied, “reading too much Twitter nonsense is making you stupid.”
An edit war broke out on Wikipedia this week over the definition of “recession,” as the Biden administration and the corporate media take the unprecedented step of denying the U.S. is in recession even after two consecutive quarters of negative growth. More than 70 edits to the page about recessions were made before the site locked the entry preventing further changes. The edits successfully de-emphasize the broad consensus definition of recession — two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — instead parroting the Biden Administration’s talking points.
The entry for Hunter Biden’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners was censored from Wikipedia on Wednesday — allegedly because it was “not notable” and a “magnet for conspiracy theories.”
Online encyclopedia-turned information giant Wikipedia banned seven of its editors over their sympathy for a French presidential hopeful.
The Wikipedia entry for “mass killings under Communist regimes” is reportedly under threat of being removed from the platform over claims of bias.
Wikipedia alleges that the site was infiltrated by a pro-China group aiming to gain control of the site and edit articles to favor communist China’s viewpoint. The infiltration was described as “unprecedented in scope and nature” by the Wikimedia Foundation, which controls Wikipedia.
In an interview Thursday for Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger stated he was embarrassed about helping found the site given its increasing left-wing bias. Noting it helps shape the understanding many Americans have of the world, Carlson asked Sanger what could be done to fix the problems on Wikipedia, but Sanger doubted it was possible to fix the site from the inside. He instead argued for creating alternative sources, noting his most recent effort: the Encyclosphere.
Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, has come under fire from the site’s editors over his criticism of the site’s left-wing bias. His criticism particularly cited an ongoing purge of conservative media on the site. While some editors tried to dispute his claims, others have smeared Sanger with accusations of antisemitism and trafficking in conspiracy theories to discredit him. Editors have also kept mention of his criticism of left-wing bias out of Wikipedia articles on the topic, due to such criticism being covered mainly in conservative media.
A long-time Wikipedia editor for over a decade, Guy Macon, retired from the site late June after he was briefly banned for not using “preferred pronouns” when discussing a ban appeal by former site administrator Ashley Van Haeften. Macon used Van Haeften’s username “Fæ” instead of singular “they” due to grammatical objections. Van Haeften and Macon previously fought over the former’s agenda-driven editing. Though the ban was lifted on grounds Macon was sincerely trying to respect Van Haeften’s wishes, some administrators still argued it was valid, citing the “code of conduct” recently imposed by Wikipedia’s owners.
Conservative media have been subject to an ongoing purge on Wikipedia since Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential election. Originally, this only banned their use for factual claims with continued use permitted for citing opinions, but a policy change early last year significantly curtailed even this exemption without any discussion supporting the change, in defiance of normal practice. The change was made by Guy Chapman, a Wikipedia administrator notorious for political bias who has played a pivotal role in the sourcing purge.
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger published a blog post last week analyzing the site’s left-wing bias. Examining articles about Donald Trump’s impeachments, the Black Lives Matter protests and riots, Joe Biden’s scandals, and the 2020 election, Sanger argued Wikipedia’s coverage is so extremely left-wing that it constitutes propaganda. He partly blamed an ongoing purge of conservative news sources on Wikipedia which includes Breitbart News. Sanger warned these developments made Wikipedia “a kind of thought police” and “an opponent of vigorous democracy.”
Recent allegations by former staff at the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, accusing management of bullying and other offenses including anti-union retaliation, have prompted other former staff to come forward. Aside from echoing claims about mistreatment of staff, one former staffer alleged departing employees often are pushed to sign non-disclosure agreements and questioned the practice in light of the allegations. She further alleged employees would sometimes be overworked and fired for then failing to perform.
Academic publisher Elsevier has retracted an entire chemistry textbook about the periodic table of elements this year after learning of allegations that significant portions were copied from Wikipedia uncredited, at times including near-verbatim text. The apparent plagiarism was uncovered by a Wikipedia editor who attempted and failed to get the book’s authors to address the issue before contacting the publisher.
A former staffer at the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, recently published a statement accusing high-level Foundation managers of workplace bullying based on his autism. Earlier this month, other former staff came forward with similar allegations of mistreatment by Foundation management. Some alleged they were subject to retaliation after complaining of the treatment with one suggesting it was tied to his union organizing activities.
A discussion at the Wikipedia Reddit community yesterday noted that Google searches asking if China owns the disputed South China Sea prominently featured a result from the online encyclopedia parroting the Chinese government position that it “enjoys indisputable sovereignty” over the sea. Reddit users noted the line appeared to be taken from a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement quoted in the article, a fact not included in the Google snippet. The line was removed after the reddit discussion brought it to attention.
Earlier this year, the Wikipedia page on GamerGate, the anti-corruption movement in gaming, saw extensive updates about the “legacy” of the movement and associated controversies. These edits pushed claims that GamerGate, which Wikipedia labels a “harassment campaign” due to a years-long effort by left-wing editors, helped Donald Trump become President in 2016 and that the movement even contributed to what the page called an “attempted coup” at the Capitol on January 6.
Twitter launched its Birdwatch feature earlier this year with media noting the similarities between the crowd-sourced fact-checking process and the open editing model of Wikipedia, a comparison Twitter touted in early demos. However, much like Wikipedia, the Birdwatch platform often serves as a way for users to push their political agenda. Both right and left have taken advantage, though Twitter promises tighter restrictions, which the platform’s history of bias suggests will tilt it towards the left.
Numerous Wikipedia users working for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have been persistently adding references to the group in various articles. The scheme included attempting to mention ADL claims about antisemitism in the article about the reddit-driven stock market boom in video game retailer GameStop. The ADL editing campaign is another example of rampant efforts by paid editors and those with conflicts of interest to exploit the site’s open editing model.
The Wikipedia page for actor Keiynan Lonsdale became a battlefield in the fight over “preferred pronouns” due to a Twitter thread noting Lonsdale once suggested “tree” as his preferred pronoun. Despite doubts about Lonsdale’s sincerity, editors repeatedly changed the male pronouns on his article to “tree” this past week until an editor sought a compromise by removing pronouns entirely. One editor who criticized the move and denigrated the idea of “tree” as a pronoun was banned for a week.
Wikipedia celebrated its 20th anniversary on January 15, following a year of considerable controversy for the online encyclopedia. The site’s increasing leftward bias became more apparent in the preceding year with Wikipedia’s owners imposing a “code of conduct” advancing left-wing identity politics, editors actively pushing a Black Lives Matter agenda, disputes regarding its medical coverage, an ongoing purge of conservative media, and aiding the 2020 Presidential campaign of Joe Biden. Affiliated sites in other languages also saw controversy over widespread errors.
Big Tech has heavily relied on content from Wikipedia in recent years, particularly in the wake of concerns about “fake news” online. Last week, the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, announced that it is launching Wikimedia Enterprise, a commercial service catering to major corporate clients. It aims to provide the service exclusively to corporations already using site content under its free license, specifically providing easier and more reliable access than under the current free system.
During the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the end of February, people searching Google for information about the annual event briefly saw it branded on the search engine’s knowledge panel sidebar as a gathering of “neo-Nazis” and “rapists.” This followed repeated vandalism of the Wikipedia page on CPAC. Although the vandalism was quickly removed, established editors smeared the event as well by noting baseless claims that the conference stage copied a “Nazi” symbol.
