This dossier has been prepared with the purpose of detailing how Wikipedia is not a free, editorial intervention-free encyclopaedia which relies on the voluntary work of thousands of unpaid, passionate volunteers across the globe, as claimed by the Wikimedia Foundation. This dossier is made with a special focus on India, Indian laws and India-related content for the purpose of formulating recommendations about treating Wikipedia as a publisher, which is directly liable for the content published on its platform.
The dossier delves briefly into various aspects of Wikipedia and its parent company – the Wikimedia Foundation in order to understand the various claims made by the Wikimedia Foundation about Wikipedia being a free-for-all-to-edit encyclopaedia, using reliable sources, maintaining a neutral point of view, surviving on donations etc. It also delves into the grants that Wikimedia Foundation gets, the entities it gets the grants from and the entities and NGOs it gives grants to. Further, it aims to understand how the Wikimedia Foundation, without maintaining its presence in India, is functioning in India and funding various entities for its business goals.
The dossier first delves into the existing research on the pronounced Left bias of Wikipedia and the elements that contribute to that bias. In all 3 research papers quoted, the unambiguous conclusion is that Wikipedia has an inherent Left bias. Wikipedia’s “NPOV” (Neutral Point of View) guidelines do not mean that the entire spectrum of views would find equal representation in the article. The result of NPOV is merely that whatever details are mentioned in the “reliable source” would be mentioned. The pool of “Reliable sources” itself is tainted since the editors and administrators, who have disproportionate power in Wikipedia, ensure that “right-wing” (non-Left) sources are deprecated or blacklisted – which bars those sources from being cited as reference material in any of the Wikipedia articles.
Larry Senger, the co-founder of Wikipedia has categorically stated as well that Wikipedia has a pronounced Left bias. In several interviews and talks, he has spoken extensively about how Wikipedia skews the scale of balance, leading to the information being an inaccurate representation of reality, ridden with Left bias.
This research paper finds that the structure of Wikipedia itself gives unmitigated power to a handful of individuals who are called ‘administrators’. There are only 435 active administrators in the entire world who have the power to ban editors, blacklist sources, ban contributors and decide the edits that should be made or reverted on articles. These few administrators hold unbridled power in Wikipedia as far as the content is concerned. This research also finds that many of these editors and administrators are paid by the Wikimedia Foundation in the form of grants for Wikimedia-related projects and therefore, it is conclusively proven that Wikipedia is not the free-for-all-to-edit model that it claims it is. Jimmy Wales himself admitted as well that he is the final arbitrator of content on Wikipedia.
The research then delves into where the Wikimedia Foundation gets its money from and where it spends its money. This analysis is done with a specific focus on India. It is found that the Wikimedia Foundation gets millions of dollars from highly motivated donor-directed funds including from Foundations like the Open Society Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Tides Foundation and others. Google too donates millions to the Wikimedia Foundation and promotes Wikipedia content, including funding projects like Abstract Wikipedia which essentially aims to colonise the internet.
Wikimedia Foundation has intimate financial connections with the clandestine Tides Foundation, which is accused of funding the pro-Hamas protests in US Universities along with George Soros.
Wikimedia and Tides Foundation also fund several organisations which specifically work against the interest of India and undermine its sovereignty on various levels.
Connections between the Wikimedia Foundation and Tides Foundation have been found with dubious organisations like Hindus For Human Rights, Equality Labs, Art+Feminism, Access Now, the Hindenburg hitjobs against Indian industrialists and others.
In India, the Wikimedia Foundation has no presence. The presence they had in the form of a registered society was closed in 2019. Despite folding in India, the Wikimedia Foundation not only collects lakhs from India in the form of donations but also funds NGOs in India which furthers the business interest of the Wikimedia Foundation. All of these organisations funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and Tides Foundation are Left organisations.
As far as the content on Wikipedia is concerned, it is found in this research that a small group of editors and administrators skew the content in India, including one editor who has been booked in the state of Manipur for spreading disaffection and creating strife. The editors often stonewall attempts to add inconvenient facts and a different perspective to the Wikipedia articles. Further, there is a specific anti-Hindu and anti-India bias which is perpetrated by the editors, reflected in the content which defines the subjects due to the partnership between Google and Wikimedia Foundation.
In conclusion, there is a list of recommendations that the researcher makes to deal with the Wikimedia Foundation, which perpetrates an editorial line without submitting to Indian laws. While the Wikimedia Foundation claims that Wikipedia is merely an intermediary, it is found that Wikipedia meets all the standards set for ‘publishers’ under the IT Guidelines. This would mean that the Wikimedia Foundation should be held liable for all the content on Wikipedia and should be required to have a presence in India to submit to Indian laws, including laws governing FCRA, NGOs, IT Guidelines, Financial disclosure standards and more.
Recommendations in the paper
Following are the recommendations based on the research into Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia:
Declare Wikipedia as a publisher
Wikipedia has claimed to be an intermediary which depends on the wisdom of the crowd without content intervention and editorial line, based on ‘reliable sources’ and maintaining and neutral point of view. This, however, is far from the truth, as evidenced in the research. Wikipedia meets all the standards of publishers. They collate information on current events and historical events, they pay their editors and administrators and they are easily accessible by the people at large on the internet. Given that Wikipedia has an editorial stand based on the editors and administrators, the evidence suggests that they are no longer eligible to be considered an intermediary. Once declared a publisher, Wikimedia would have to have their offices in India, set up a grievance redressal system and submit to Indian laws about illegal content which undermines the sovereignty of India or creates disaffection.
Scrutinise financial transactions
Wikimedia Foundation conducts several financial transactions in India to further its business interests and fund Left organisations and individuals who end up undermining the sovereignty of India and creating disaffection. Any financial transactions in India, payments in India and fund collection from India are bound by Indian laws including IT laws, FCRA, laws governing NGOs and the IT Guidelines among others. The government should impress upon the Wikimedia Foundation that they, legally, need to establish an official presence in India and submit to financial scrutiny as per Indian laws.
Establish a browser extension that marks bias on Wikipedia articles
As is discussed in the research, the Wikimedia Foundation has paid thousands of dollars to Wikipedia administrator ‘Newslinger’ to create an app and a browser extension which would templatise the Wikipedia bias in the perennial sources – which essentially means that when anyone reads a website on the internet, it would be the bias opinions of Wikipedia editors that would pop up deciding which source is reliable and which isn’t. With the Wikimedia Foundation and Google being hands in glove, there is no doubt that this project could be implemented. The government of India should work on a browser extension that can potentially flag bias, misinformation, disinformation and fake news on Wikipedia articles, at the very least, pertaining to India.
Evaluate Wikipedia under the Competition Act 2002
The Competition Act, of 2002, is the primary legislation in India addressing antitrust issues. It was enacted to promote and sustain competition in markets, prevent anti-competitive practices, and protect the interests of consumers. Google in collaboration with Wikimedia Foundation is skewing the scale in favour of Wikipedia content and information, underming Indian media and content sources. The deprecating of sources and Google and Wikimedia Foundation ratifying the biased information results in a serious loss of revenue and ranking for Indian websites which they do not editorially agree with. Google and Wikimedia Foundation should be investigated for anti-competition practices.
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