Jimmy Wales, the founder of the famous online encyclopedia, has made it clear that he does not intend to be intimidated.
Absolute master on , considered a Nazi by some. But Jimmy Wales, the founder of the famous online encyclopedia, made it clear that he did not intend to be intimidated.
Majority owner of became very close. For his part, Jimmy Wales wants to be the champion of neutrality and proven facts.
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“Propaganda” and “facts”
The goal of Wikipedia is to allow editors to create content “clear and recognizing the different existing points of view” despite “the rise of divisiveness, partisanship, culture wars and all that”he said in December in an interview with the media Intelligencer. At the origin of the recent quarrel: a disturbing gesture by Elon Musk on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration. To greet the crowd, he firmly raised his hand in a manner similar, according to his detractors and historians, to the Nazi salute.
Since Wednesday, this gesture, widely commented on in the United States and around the world, has appeared on Elon Musk's biographical page on Wikipedia as well as on the page devoted to the Nazi salute. On Elon Musk's page, Wikipedia specifies that the gesture was “perceived by a number of observers as a Nazi salute” but the billionaire defended himself. Which did not prevent the main party from attacking the site, accusing it of taking over “propaganda” traditional media, one of its preferred targets. He called on his supporters to stop funding Wikipedia.
-Of the “facts”not propaganda, replied Jimmy Wales, also on X. “Elon is not happy that Wikipedia is not for sale”he laughed, referring to the 2022 takeover of X, then Twitter, by the businessman, for $44 billion.
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The “decline of trust”
Managed by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia is a sort of UFO in the tech world, today dominated by behemoths like Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). The platform aims to be one of the last symbols of early internet idealism, giving a voice to Internet users around the world. Founded on January 15, 2001, Wikipedia started in English but quickly expanded across the world with content available in more than 300 languages today.
“The decline of trust in journalism and politics is very strong, which in some cases translates into people feeling angry and lost”said Jimmy Wales in his interview with Intelligencer. But within the Wikipedia community, he said, “we continue to work, trying to be neutral and clear”. After Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter in 2022, which he renamed X, the teams responsible for content moderation were replaced by «community notes»messages posted by users to contradict the truth of a message or qualify it by adding context. Elon Musk claims to defend freedom of expression, but specialists believe that the platform has become a paradise for disinformation.
