Wikipedia in the press |
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Please list coverage about Wikipedia itself here, by month.
There are templates at the bottom of the page (commented out in "Edit source").
- Cf. press list kept on Meta: meta:Communications committee/Press clippings
January
- Sowmya, Sangam (January 1, 2020). "Telugu Wikipedia set to turn the page". Telangana Today. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
Telugu Wikipedia has little to offer with no more than 72,000 pages of information. ... For this purpose, a team of specialists has been formed including a large number of volunteers who are active on Wikipedia since it is not easy to upload the entire information regarding the State. IIIT-H will provide technical support.
- "Most popular Wikipedia pages for 2019". San Francisco Chronicle. January 1, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- Yahr, Emily (January 1, 2020). "Obsessed with Wikipedia's 'personal life' entries? You're not alone". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
Welcome to the often fascinating, occasionally frustrating, sometimes cursed rabbit hole known as the Wikipedia "personal life" entry. Actually, I don't need to welcome you, because I'm sure you've been here. Many times.
- Menger-Anderson, Kirsten (January 2, 2020). "The Sum of What? On Gender, Visibility, and Wikipedia". Undark Magazine. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
But does the encyclopedia live up to this vision, or is it playing a part in perpetuating and entrenching long-standing biases? The gender imbalances in both the editor population and the site's biographies — both over 80 percent male — are well documented. But what of the backbone of the encyclopedia: the sources cited within its pages?
- Barik, Soumyarendra (January 2, 2020). "Proposed intermediary liability rules are a threat to Wikipedia's collaborative model: Wikimedia Foundation to IT Ministry". MediaNama. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
The proposed changes to India's intermediary liability changes might "have serious impact on Wikipedia's open editing model, create a significant financial burden for nonprofit technology organisations and have the potential to limit free expression rights for internet users across the country," the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit group that operates Wikipedia and a number of other projects, said in a letter to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
- Jones, Mike (January 3, 2020). "Mandalorian: Punching Baby Yoda Added To Jason Sudeikis' Wikipedia Page". Screen Rant. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
Jason Sudeikis punching Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian season 1 finale is added to the actor's Wikipedia page.
- "Wikipedia still banned in Turkey despite top court's violation ruling". Ahval. January 5, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
Wikipedia is still unaccessible in Turkey despite the country's top court's decision to lift the ban on the website, Birgün daily reported on Sunday.
- Benjakob, Omer (January 9, 2020). "Why Wikipedia Is Much More Effective Than Facebook at Fighting Fake News". Haaretz. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
Wikipedia cracks down on disinformation, and pro-Trump web sites are the first to go.
- Kentish, Benjamin (January 11, 2020). "Tory Brexiteer MP appears to edit his own Wikipedia page to remove reference to EU grant and unlawful payments". The Independent. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
A new Tory MP appears to have edited his own Wikipedia page to remove references to funding that one of his companies received from the EU and information about illegal dividends that he was paid.
- "Turkey Restores Wikipedia After More Than 2-Year Ban". The New York Times. January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
By late Wednesday, access had been restored to most of the country, according to NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet usage and cybersecurity.
- "Wikipedia ban lifted after top court ruling issued". Hürriyet Daily News. January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
The Constitutional Court based its ruling on decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, European Council and UN about freedom of internet and expression. It underlined that Wikipedia had millions of users and helped all in their ability to access information.
- Kandemir, Asli (January 16, 2020). "Turkey Removes Ban on Wikipedia After Almost Three Years". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
"As access to Wikipedia is still actively being restored across Turkey, some users in Turkey may experience restored access sooner or later than others, the website said in a statement
- Te, Mandy (January 16, 2020). "Wikipedia pages to change as Christchurch takes second place". Stuff. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
Hundreds of Wikipedia pages will need to be changed after Christchurch has taken the capital's crown as the second-most populous city in New Zealand.
- Leeson, Sarah (January 16, 2020). "How Wikipedia's volunteer army combats misinformation in the 'post-truth' era". Public Radio International. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
"Originally, I had to become a contributor because I had a high school friend who's a novelist, and his Wikipedia page said he's Italian, so I had to fix it. And then once I figured out, 'Gosh, I could fix the internet,' I had to fix it, and I couldn't stop," Hayes said.
- "Wikipedia to focus on health". The Times of India. January 17, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
Pune: Wikipedia India has urged medical professionals to contribute to the world's largest encyclopaedia by writing articles from their field.
- "Apple's Siri says Israeli president is 'President of the Zionist occupation state'". i24 News. January 18, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
Error stemmed from someone hacking into Reuven Rivlin's Wikipedia page and editing its content.
- Zanotti, Emily (January 19, 2020). "Apple's Siri Told iPhone Users That Israel Is A 'Zionist Occupation State' After A Wikipedia Hack". The Daily Wire. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
For conservatives, the concern is two-fold: in addition to concerns about security and veracity, it now appears anyone can update Siri using Wikipedia, a website with a known, apparent leftward tilt.
- Zeiba, Drew (January 21, 2020). "Snøhetta selected to lead Wikipedia rebrand". The Architect's Newspaper. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
Snøhetta has been selected by the Wikimedia Foundation for its rebrand. The Foundation, which operates the 19-year-old Wikipedia is looking to update its visual identity, as well as focus their public persona less on the foundation and more on their principal project.
- Sansone, Kurt (January 22, 2020). "Education Minister axes consultant who manipulated Council of Europe rapporteur's Wikipedia page". Malta Today. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
MaltaToday is informed that an internal investigation showed that the consultant used a computer assigned to the Education Ministry to change Pieter Omtzigt's Wikipedia profile sometime last year.
- Singh, Manish (January 24, 2020). "Wikipedia now has more than 6 million articles in English". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
The 6 millionth article is about Maria Elise Turner Lauder, a 19th-century Canadian school teacher, travel writer and fiction writer.
- Xuereb, Matthew (January 24, 2020). "Labour stalwart says he edited Dutch MP's Wikipedia page". Times of Malta. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
A former Education Ministry consultant who used a government PC to change the Wikipedia profile of Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt is Labour stalwart Anthony DeGiovanni, who has admitted to carrying out "legitimate editing" of the page.
- Hamit, Dilara (January 25, 2020). "In shadow of false charges against Turkey: Wikipedia". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
Turkey has disabled Wikipedia because it is obligated to protect its image of state, therefore has the right to impose sanctions against any negative behavior, according to an expert.
- "Wikipedia now has over 6 million articles in English". The Economic Times. January 25, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
Following the English edition, which hit the five million-mark in late 2015, are the German version with about 2.3 million articles, and the French version, which has about 2.1 million articles, the report added.
- "Wikipedia users can now read over 6 million articles in English". Hindustan Times. January 26, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
The world's largest online multilingual encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has now crossed the milestone of having more than six million articles in English language.
- Wilke, Axel (January 26, 2020). "Macrons and Wikipedia". Scoop. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
But one of the last bastions of macron resistance for place names is Wikipedia, one of the world's most-viewed websites. That's a concern, and some Kiwi Wikipedians want to change this.
- Ainge Roy, Eleanor (January 27, 2020). "Wikipedia urged to add accents to Māori placenames amid resurgence in te reo". The Guardian. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
A macron is used in te reo to indicate long vowels, and although Wikipedia currently adopts macrons for many words – including the word Māori itself – it does not use them for place names, long a bone of contention in New Zealand.
- Tyko, Kelly (January 27, 2020). "Google search for 'When did Kobe Bryant die' no longer lists Jan. 26 as 'date of assassination'". USA Today. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
The result, which mentions the "date of assassination" is for a Wikipedia page about Bryant's life and career. The word "assassination" did not appear on the Wikipedia page, which does have a note that it is "being heavily edited because its subject has recently died."
- Harrison, Stephen (January 29, 2020). "Wikipedia Has Been Unblocked in Turkey, Finally". Slate. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
At the same time, it's sobering because the strategies employed for Turkey seem unlikely to be effective in other countries where Wikipedia has been censored.
- "Christchurch man proposes Wikipedia change to include macrons". The New Zealand Herald. January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
The idea was first raised on Wikipedia discussion pages in 2007, with no clear consensus.
- Benjakob, Omer (January 31, 2020). "Wikipedia Beats Erdogan's Censorship – and Turks Are Flocking Back". Haaretz. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
Since access was restored, the local community has been keeping itself busy, and the most "active" article (in terms of editing and internal discussion) in Turkish Wikipedia the week after access was restored was the main entry for Wikipedia itself, followed by the article dealing with why it was banned.
- "Economic Survey sources data from Wikipedia, other private entities". India Today. January 31, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
The Economic Survey 2019-20 has sourced certain data from Wikipedia, which is not considered as reliable source of information. Besides Wikipedia, the Survey has also relied on data from other private sources such as Bloomberg, ICRA, CMIE...
- Hewitt, Phil (January 31, 2020). "Chichester art gallery sets out to correct Wikipedia's "gender gap" omissions". Mid Sussex Times. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
During the Edit-a-thon, participants will learn how to become a Wikipedia editor before reviewing and editing articles on modernist women artists including Jessica Dismorr, Jann Haworth and Prunella Clough.
February
- Evans, Greg (February 1, 2020). "US Senate labelled 'dead' in Wikipedia prank as Trump impeachment trial set to collapse". The Independent. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
A man named Bruce Halperin took to Wikipeadia [sic] to edit the US Senate page to announce its death and the death of American democracy.
- Moran, Lee (February 1, 2020). "Someone Just Edited The Senate's Wikipedia Page In The Most Savage Way". HuffPost. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
A prankster took a swipe at Donald Trump and declared the U.S. Senate to be 'dead' on its Wikipedia page after Senate Republicans voted to block witnesses from testifying in the impeachment trial of the president.
- Jena, Smrutisnat (February 1, 2020). "Twitter Schools Finance Ministry After It Cites Wikipedia As A Source For Economic Survey". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
So when this little fact about the Economic Survey came to light, Twitter went after the central government and the finance ministry.
- Thalen, Mikael (February 1, 2020). "Prankster changes Senate's Wikipedia page amid impeachment trial". The Daily Dot. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
A prankster altered the U.S. Senate's Wikipedia page to state that the governmental body was "dead" following the refusal of Republicans to allow witnesses to testify in the ongoing impeachment trial.
- Dormehl, Luke (February 1, 2020). "How Wikimedia controls the chaos of constant contributions to create Wikipedia". Digital Trends. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
With more than 100,000 editors working together to create and maintain millions of articles in hundreds of languages, Wikipedia has a good claim to being the greatest large-scale collaborative project in human history.
- "Dale Steyn asks for help to edit 'false' information about him on Wikipedia". India Today. February 5, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
South Africa pacer Dale Steyn on Tuesday took to Twitter to say that some important piece of information after the 36-year-old bowler was not true on the Wikipedia.
- "Dale Steyn calls on Google to change 'false' information on Wikipedia". The Indian Express. February 5, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
While several users pointed out that Google has nothing to do with Wikipedia, another section reminded him that anyone is free to edit on the page.
- Sahay, Aditya (February 5, 2020). "Dale Steyn takes to Twitter seeking correction of wrong info on Wikipedia, gets trolled instead". Times Now. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
Hence, Twitter users got together to roast the South African speedster with some epic responses. Check out some replies below:
- Howgego, Joshua (February 5, 2020). "Jess Wade's one-woman mission to diversify Wikipedia's science stories". New Scientist. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
She publicly called those editors out for systematic bias and the controversy made it into the UK press, highlighting the shadowy power plays that dictate what information ends up on Wikipedia.
- Tabberer, Jamie (February 7, 2020). "Phillip Schofield's Wikipedia page declares he'll be gay 'going forward' and fans are bemused". Metro (British newspaper). Retrieved February 9, 2020.
Within minutes, the TV veteran's Wikipedia page had been updated to reflect the announcement, with the initial choice of wording raising eyebrows and prompting laughs.
- "Wikipedia biased towards rich countries on flood coverage". Orissa Post. February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
By performing careful, large-scale analysis of automatic content, "we show how flood coverage in Wikipedia leans towards wealthy, English-speaking countries, particularly the USA and Canada", the researchers claimed in their work.
- "Wikipedia content from Indian perspective needed: IIIT-H chairman". Telangana Today. February 8, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
Stating that the articles in English Wikipedia are not India-centric, he opined that the goal must be to create Indian language Wikipedia content from Indian perspective.
- Benjakob, Omer (February 9, 2020). "On Wikipedia, a fight is raging over coronavirus disinformation". Wired. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
In short, Wikipedia has become central in how the ongoing health crisis is processed and discussed online. The flip-side of that is that Wikipedia's free-to-edit, open format can be easily used to spread disinformation.
- Cook, James (February 9, 2020). "Top banking apps Starling Bank and Curve accused of editing their Wikipedia pages to delete criticism". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
Two of the UK's most prominent financial technology start-ups have been accused of doctoring their entries on Wikipedia in order to remove criticism.
- Scheffler, Nick (February 9, 2020). "Scheffler: An ode to Wikipedia". Minnesota Daily. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
It was an amazing thing, Wikipedia. Unlimited knowledge at your fingertips, and you regret not donating a few bucks whenever they asked for money. You wish Wikipedia would go back to the way it was before the .org domain, the internet domain used primarily for non-profits, was purchased by a for-profit company.
- Wilson, Kyle (February 11, 2020). "The World's Second Largest Wikipedia Is Written Almost Entirely by One Bot". Vice. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
Wikipedia consensus is that an unedited machine translation, left as a Wikipedia article, is worse than nothing.
- Evans, Jocelyn (February 11, 2020). "Physicist writes 900 Wikipedia entries to boost diversity in science". itv.com. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
The project is not without its difficulties, however, as entries to Wikipedia have to be "notable" enough to make it onto the platform. Scientists who have not been written about struggle to make it onto the site as Wikipedia required "inline citations" as a part of its verifiability process.
- Matheson, Rob (February 12, 2020). "Automated system can rewrite outdated sentences in Wikipedia articles". MIT News. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
Text-generating tool pinpoints and replaces specific information in sentences while retaining humanlike grammar and style.
- "Wikipedia seeks donation from Indian readers to keep encyclopedia thriving". Pune Mirror. February 12, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
Wikipedia, a free multi-lingual online encyclopedia that provides information about almost everything, is seeking donation from the readers in India so it doesn't go under.
- Asay, Matt (February 13, 2020). "Man tries to sell Jimmy Wales on blockchain for Wikipedia's security problems--Wales doesn't buy it". TechRepublic. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
As such, it's not surprising that someone would eventually suggest blockchain could solve all of Wikipedia's security problems. It's also not surprising that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales would rip the idea to shreds.
- Surabhi, Pandey (13 February 2020). "Wikipedia Removes 'Donation Notice' For Indian Users After 'Paywall' Rumours". News Nation. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
In the appeal, which has been removed now, Wikipedia had urged the Indian users to donate money for the 'unlimited access'. However, no such notice live on the Wikipedia homepage.
- Wiggers, Kyle (February 13, 2020). "MIT CSAIL's AI corrects outdated Wikipedia articles". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
In search of an autonomous solution, researchers at MIT have developed an system that uses AI and machine learning to address inconsistencies in Wikipedia articles.
- Eigeman, Anne (February 14, 2020). "How Wikipedia Faces Emerging Knowledge with Collective Capital". Nonprofit Quarterly. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
Health crises such as the recent outbreak of coronavirus add a heightened level of urgency to the work that Wikipedia does on a daily basis, and so Marketplace's Molly Wood sat down with Katherine Maher, chief executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, to talk about the challenges of misinformation and the future.
- "Researchers developing AI that could correct outdated information on Wikipedia". The Jakarta Post. February 16, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
Instead of relying on volunteers to correct outdated information on Wikipedia, the reference site would soon use a text-generating system "that pinpoints and replaces specific information in relevant Wikipedia sentences, while keeping the language similar to how humans write and edit."
- Cooke, Richard (February 17, 2020). "Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet". Wired. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
Why do Wikipedians perform these millions of hours of labor, some expended on a giant straw goat, without pay? Because they don't experience them as labor. "It's a misconception people work for free," Wales told the site Hacker Noon in 2018. "They have fun for free."
- Mukherjee, Jashodhara (February 17, 2020). "'Paid Award': Wikipedia Page Vandalised After 'Gully Boy' Wins Big at Filmfare Awards 2020". CNN-News18. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
However, not everyone agrees. And one such disgruntled individual decided to make his indignation known by editing the Filmfare page on Wikipedia, labelling Gully Boys awards as "paid."
- Izso, Lauren (February 17, 2020). "Israeli Librarians Win Global Wikipedia Competion". Algemeiner Journal. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
The campaign known on social media as #1Lib1Ref ("One Librarian, One Reference"), asks librarians from around the world to both update existing Wikipedia pages with valid references and create new posts altogether, in an effort to spread awareness and combat inaccurate online information.
- Smith A, Denise (February 18, 2020). "Situating Wikipedia as a health information resource in various contexts: A scoping review". PLOS One. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
While Wikipedia itself is well into its second decade, the academic discourse around Wikipedia within the context of health is still young and the academic literature is limited when attempts are made to understand Wikipedia as a health information resource.
- Jenny, McGrath (19 February 2020). "What does it take to make a social media network that doesn't exploit users?". Digital Trends. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
Unlike Facebook, the Wikipedia social network isn't designed to generate profit by leveraging user data.
- Burris, Sarah K. (February 19, 2020). "After bombing in #DemDebate internet changes Mike Bloomberg's 'death' date on Wikipedia". The Raw Story. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
The Wikipedia article was also changed to indicate that his cause of death was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
- LaCapria, Kim (February 20, 2020). "Did Someone Edit Michael Bloomberg's Wikipedia Page to Say He 'Died' of Wounds Inflicted by Elizabeth Warren?". TruthOrFiction.com. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
In reporting on the purported edits to Wikipedia's Mike Bloomberg page, one news outlet suggested that a similar edit had been added to say that Bloomberg had been "stabbed by Warren, [Joe] Biden and [Bernie] Sanders":
- Garcia, Sierra (February 20, 2020). "Wikipedia is flooded with information — but it has a blind spot". Grist. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
According to a recent study, the 2018 Sudan floods are just one of many major floods in low-income countries — especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America — that either have truncated Wikipedia pages or lack pages altogether.
- "விக்கிப்பீடியா கட்டுரைப்போட்டி - சக இந்திய மொழிகளை பின்னுக்குத்தள்ளி 'தமிழ்' முதலிடம்...!" [Wikipedia Article Competetion - "Tamil" is numero uno as it trumps rest of Indian languages]. News 18 (in Tamil). 21 February 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
62 விக்கிப்பீடியர்கள் தமிழ் சார்பாகப் பங்கெடுத்து 2942 (2959) கட்டுரைகளை எழுதி, தமிழ் இந்தாண்டு முதலிடத்தைப் பெற்றுள்ளது [This year Tamil gains first spot, as 62 Wikipedians participated for Tamil and wrote 2942 (2959) articles].
- Sairam, Jayaraman (21 February 2020). "விக்கிப்பீடியா: இந்தி, சமஸ்கிருதத்தை வீழ்த்தி தமிழ் முதலிடம்" [Wikipedia: Tamil gains number one position pushing down Hindi and Sanskrit]. BBC Tamil (in Tamil). Retrieved 24 February 2020.
இந்நிலையில், போட்டிக்கான காலகட்டத்தில் அதிகபட்ச கட்டுரைகள் மட்டுமின்றி, பங்கேற்பாளர்களின் எண்ணிக்கையிலும் தமிழ் மொழி முதலிடத்தை பெற்றுள்ளது. [In this stage, within the specific time limit, not only in terms of more articles even in terms of number of participants too, Tamil language gains number one position.]
- Gannon, Rebecca (February 22, 2020). "Kansas City museum, library using resources to improve Wikipedia pages on local black artists". WDAF-TV. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
The Nelson-Atkins hosted its fourth annual Wiki Edit-A-Thon to add a bit more truth to those Wikipedia pages.
- "We Need the Wisdom of Wikipedia". The Lumberjack. February 22, 2020. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
Wikipedia comes in clutch, often. Using it as a source may be frowned upon by professors, but a short chat with most of them and they'll say Wikipedia is an excellent place to start. The website is a tool, not a cheat code. It would be ignorant to ignore it, but if it's used appropriately, maybe, just maybe, we could learn something about jellyfish.
- Mandiberg, Michael (February 23, 2020). "Mapping Wikipedia". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
An unprecedented data set shows where the encyclopedia's editors are, where they aren't, and why.
- Dash, Sanchita (February 25, 2020). "Wikipedia says it may not be accessible in India if government pushes through new internet rules". Business Insider. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
For Wikimedia foundation, which runs Wikipedia, the new rules might mean projecting different content for different countries – something that the not for profit organisation is completely against.
- Aloi, Daniel (February 25, 2020). "Wikipedia project promotes women artists". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
Several Wikipedia pages have been created during edit-a-thons on campus, including entries for influential feminist publisher and Ithaca resident Nancy Bereano and 19th-century botanical illustrator Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft.
- Wiggers, Kyle (February 25, 2020). "Salesforce's AI navigates Wikipedia to find answers to complex questions". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
Wikipedia offers a wealth of knowledge on countless topics to those who know where to look, but therein lies the rub — navigating its database of over 6 billion articles requires some web-crawling finesse.
- MacDonald, Tyler (February 26, 2020). "Kyle Kulinski Says 'Neoliberal Trolls' Had His Wikipedia Page Deleted". Inquisitr. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
Progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski claimed Wednesday that his Wikipedia account was deleted due to the actions of "neoliberal trolls." "Neoliberal trolls successfully got my Wikipedia page deleted," he tweeted. "That's both hilarious and sad. If you're not part of the club they do everything they can to erase you, quite literally."
- "Belgium will try to fix the lack of women on Wikipedia". The Brussels Times. February 26, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
On 5 March, the Belgian French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF will organise what it calls a "Wikithon" from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM, with the aim to create 100 new biographical profiles of women on Wikipedia.
- Sheth, Hemani (February 26, 2020). "Indian users may lose access to Wikipedia in light of new internet rules: Report". Business Line. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
Wikipedia might not be accessible to Indian users if government approves new internet rules, Business Insider reported on Tuesday.
- "Wikipedia Could Potentially Shut Shop in India Due to New Government Rules". CNN-News18. February 26, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
Recently introduced laws and policies could completely change the way companies dealing with data, in this case Wikipedia, work. It also mandates that companies having more than 50 lakh users to set up a local office with a permanent registered office and address.
- Riederer, Rachel (February 28, 2020). "The Good Internet Lives On". The New Republic. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
Wikipedians strive for professionalism, but at a moment when slick internet tools can lend the gloss of high production value to every element of our overdocumented lives, it's nice to encounter the work of a passionate hobbyist, even if ephemerally—knowing it could be sanded down by one of a thousand volunteer editors at any second.
March
- Wekíngartner, Tana (March 2, 2020). "Wikipedia Lacks Profiles Of Women. These College Students Are Changing That". WVXU. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
Reavis leads a research lab (think independent study but students can earn credit or do paid research) in which students are researching and publishing profiles about prominent women on Wikipedia. Her students have published 10 profiles so far.
- Richman, Darren (March 2, 2020). "Wikipedia makes Joe Lycett's new name official by changing his entry to 'Hugo Boss'". Indy100. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
At the time of writing, the comic's page opens with the words, "Hugo Boss (born Joe Harry Lycett; 5 July 1988) is a British comedian." Before this, there was no mention of his original name and the opening line simply read "Hugo Boss, is a British comedian", redundant comma and all.
- Dash, Sanchita (March 2, 2020). "Here's why the 'free knowledge' platform Wikipedia is raising funds in India". Business Insider. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
And Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, has confirmed to Business Insider that it recently began running tests on online donations in India, and looks forward to providing readers in India the ability to support Wikipedia.
- "Iran Blocks Wikipedia Amid Coronavirus Crisis, Says Net Group". Haaretz. March 3, 2020. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
Wikipedia's Farsi-language website appears to be disrupted in Iran after a close confidant to the country's supreme leader died of the new coronavirus, an activist group said Tuesday, as the Islamic Republic suffers the highest death rate from the epidemic outside of China.
- Pasternack, Alex (March 7, 2020). "How Wikipedia's volunteers became the web's best weapon against misinformation". Fast Company. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
Yet while places like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter struggle to fend off a barrage of false content, with their scattershot mix of policies, fact-checkers, and algorithms, one of the web's most robust weapons against misinformation is an archaic-looking website written by anyone with an internet connection, and moderated by a largely anonymous crew of volunteers.
- Murphy, James (March 9, 2020). "Wikipedia Censors List of Scientists Who Don't Agree With Global-warming "Consensus". The New American. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
The appalling act of censorship was ostensibly done as a result of a discussion on a proposal to delete the article.
- "'Professional traitor': Jyotiraditya Scindia's Wikipedia page changed after scion resigns from Congress". The Free Press Journal. March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
When we visited the Wikipedia page of Jyotiraditya Scindia, it was, however, corrected, showing that he was an Indian politician. There were no mentions or expletives calling him a 'donkey' or 'traitor'.
- Jacobson, Kate (March 11, 2020). "Filling in the gender gap on Wikipedia". Fortune. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
Last year, Reavis, an associate professor of psychology at Earlham College in Indiana, recruited students in her research lab to develop Wikipedia pages for women in STEM. So far, they've created 10 pages profiling women from around the world.
- "Wikipedia research on diseases strongly synchronised with news coverage". Engineering & Technology. March 13, 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
Tizzoni suggests that his team's findings could help public health officials refine their crisis communication strategies, although further research is required to clarify whether this close pattern of synchronisation is similar across different disease outbreak scenarios, and in different countries.
- Chitra, Rachel (March 14, 2020). "1600 edits on Delhi riots, Wiki wars turn fierce on ideology". The Times of India. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
The cuts have been swift and the edits rapid as people make a thousand changes to shape the information on political issues fraught with polarising narratives.
- Cohen, Noam (March 15, 2020). "How Wikipedia Prevents the Spread of Coronavirus Misinformation". Wired. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
Wikipedia shows, however, that extreme circumstances, especially when related to public health, require different, more stringent rules, not better application of existing rules. The stakes are simply too high.
- 赵觉珵 (2020-03-19). "1918年大流感也要"甩锅"给中国?调查发现维基词条被恶意篡改". Global Times (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2020-03-19.
- Harrison, Stephen (March 19, 2020). "The Coronavirus Is Stress-Testing Wikipedia's Policies". Slate. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
Highlighting news about the pandemic arguably goes against another of the site's content policies: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and "not a newspaper." Then again, that distinction raises tricky questions, like, what's the difference between a journalist and an encyclopedist who are both chronicling a pandemic in real time?
- "Battle of the macrons: Debate about Māori words on Wikipedia ends". Newstalk ZB. March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
A Christchurch man's campaign for Wikipedia to officially adopt the use of macrons in Māori words has been a success.
- Thalen, Mikael (March 24, 2020). "Meet the Wikipedia editors fighting to keep coronavirus pages accurate". The Daily Dot. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
In the final days of January 2020, Dekimasu, a professor who confirmed his identity to the Daily Dot but asked to remain anonymous, began helping populate the Wikipedia page for the emerging "Novel coronavirus."
- "Wikipedia has COVID-19 information in Bangla, Hindi, Tamil and 6 other Indian languages". Hindustan Times. March 27, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
To ensure that only the right information is uploaded, especially for Wikipedia since it follows an open editing model that's been designed to prevent bias, the platform has partnered with Swastha. Swastha is a branch of a much larger Wikipedia group, WikiProject Medicine, that includes doctors and experts from around the world.
- Malone, Katie (March 31, 2020). "City Lights: Take a Cool and Freaky Wikipedia Deep Dive or Add to Your Apocalypse Library". Washington City Paper. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
Ever find yourself down the Wikipedia rabbit hole of oddities and strange occurrences? The nearly 50,000 members of Cool Freaks' Wikipedia Club have been there, too. In one of the last good things left on Facebook, self-proclaimed "cool freaks" are sharing the quirky Wiki discoveries that left an impression.
- "The most surprising collaboration of the season comes from Etudes x Wikipedia". Yahoo! News. March 31, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
In the wake of an initial teaser during the most recent bout of runway shows a few months ago, the collaboration between the Études label and the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia has taken shape with the launch of a collection of ready-to-wear and accessories.
April
- Lee, Isaac (April 2, 2020). "Penn Museum faculty, students create Wikipedia pages about women to boost representation". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
Penn Museum faculty and students celebrated Women's History Month last week by creating and editing Wikipedia articles about notable women affiliated with the museum. ... "It would have been easy to say, 'Oh well, we couldn't do it'," Sharkey said. "But it seems more important to do it now as a way of building community when this pandemic has scattered us all."
- Dodds, Laurence (April 3, 2020). "Why Wikipedia is winning against the coronavirus 'infodemic'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
Against all odds, Wikipedia's eccentric volunteer editors are holding back the tide of coronavirus misinformation
- Singh, Jagmeet (April 3, 2020). "Wikipedia Project SWASTHA Aims to Eradicate Fake News Around the Coronavirus Outbreak in India". NDTV. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
For many people, Wikipedia is the first port of call to learn about these kinds of subjects, and misinformation on the Wiki can have grave consequences. That's why the organisation is putting extra resources towards limiting fake news circulation by offering information related to the virus and its disease in Indic languages through Project SWASTHA (an abbreviation of Special Wikipedia Awareness Scheme for The Healthcare Affiliates).
- "Wikipedia's SWASTHA project to help fight Covid-19 fake news in India: Report". Hindustan Times. April 3, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
Wikipedia is working on a new project called "SWASTHA" to fight misinformation relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Gadgets360.
- McGeorge, Alistair (April 5, 2020). "WWE's AJ Styles in Wikipedia 'death prank' after WrestleMania Boneyard Match". Metro (British newspaper). Retrieved May 3, 2020.
It didn't take long for some pranksters to have some fun, with some edits seemingly made to Styles' Wikipedia page to reflect the outcome of the brawl. Naturally, everything is back to normal now, but for a short while his bio appeared to list 4 April as the day he died.
- Benjakob, Omer (April 8, 2020). "Why Wikipedia Is Immune to Coronavirus". Haaretz. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
Everyone is self-isolating and everyone is online – and Wikipedia is one of the beneficiaries. In Italy, where the virus hit especially hard, for example, many were using their down time to volunteer on Wikipedia and help enrich its local Italian-language content.
- Hassan, Daleen; McLaughlin-Eastham, Rebecca; Essaid, Salim (April 10, 2020). "How are translations between English and Arabic helping to tackle misinformation?". Euronews. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
When the so-called Islamic State invaded Mosul in 2014, there was a significant threat of losing much of the knowledge made available to the population. With this, Iraqis secretly downloaded and shared countless Wikipedia pages.
- Allen, Rachel (April 11, 2020). "Wikipedia is a world built by and for men. Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight is changing that". The Lily. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
Five years ago, Stephenson-Goodknight didn't have her own Wikipedia page. For most of her life, she didn't contribute to the website at all. But Stephenson-Goodknight has become a superstar in the community, and a pioneer for gender equality on a platform deeply in need of articles about women. She has written over 5,000 articles for the website, nearly 1,400 dedicated to women specifically. That's not insignificant, given that only 18 percent of Wikipedia's biography entries are about women.
- Baruah, Pranjal (12 April 2020). "Sabha bid to promote Assamese". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
Saikia, a Sahitya Akademi awardee, has been busy adding valuable content to Assamese Wikipedia, the Assamese language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia created and edited online by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Trancozo Trevino, Miguel (15 April 2020). "The many languages missing from the internet". BBC. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
Oxlaj Kumez is working with other activists to create a version of Wikipedia in Kaqchikel Mayan, as well as a translated version of Mozilla's Firefox web browser.
- Kosner, Edward (May 2020). "Jew-Tagging @Wikipedia". Commentary.
As far as I know, the entry had never been fiddled with since it was originally published in the open-sourced encyclopedia that, along with Google, is the modern resource of choice for checking each other out. Then, not long ago, I clicked on my page and suddenly read that I was a Jew.
- Gaur, Viraj (18 April 2020). "Twitter Users Accuse Wikipedia of Taking Bribes, Founder Responds". The Quint. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
A Twitter user on Thursday, 16 April, alleged that Wikipedia had accepted payment to delete an article titled '2020 Tablighi Jamaat coronavirus hotspot in Delhi'. "How much will our media and woke intellectuals hide their wrongdoings?" she quipped in her tweet, which has more than two thousand likes and a thousand retweets – and some very baffled responses from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
- Jena, Smrutisnat (19 April 2020). "Wikipedia Founder Responds To Angry Indians Who Ask Him If He Knows How Wikipedia Works". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
Anyhow, the article has now been restored but with multiple sources, it seems.
- "Wikipedia's befitting reply to 'bribe to delete Tablighi' page". The Siasat Daily. 19 April 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales schooled a user on micro-blogging site after she said the site was bribed to delete the "Tablighi Jamaat 2020 Coronavirus Hotspot" page.
- Chitra, Rachel (22 April 2020). "On Wikipedia, Quora & Twitter, battle rages against communalisation of Covid-19, Jamaat event". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
Social media users and platforms like Wikipedia, Quora and Twitter are waging a war against communalism in the wake of the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi that spawned Covid-19 clusters across the country.
- "MFA Launches Mega Campaign To Saturate Wikipedia With Unbiased Information On Ukraine and the World". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine). 22 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with Wikimedia Ukraine NGO launches an initiative to counter disinformation about Ukraine and communicate unbiased facts about the country in various languages on Wikipedia.
- "MFA Ukraine launches "mega campaign" to fill Wikipedia with unbiased info on Ukraine". Ukrainian Independent Information Agency. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with Wikimedia Ukraine nonprofit is launching an initiative to counter disinformation about Ukraine and communicate unbiased facts about the country in various languages on Wikipedia.
- Jahangir, Ramsha (23 April 2020). "Wikipedia breaks five-year record with high traffic in pandemic". Dawn. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
Around 4,504 Wikipedia pages have been created to record different aspects of the pandemic, its spread to different countries, the race to find a treatment and viral conspiracies. Of the total pages, the English-language articles on Wikipedia about the virus alone have registered over 240 million views.
- Wilke, Axel (24 April 2020). "Wikipedia Macron Battle". Scoop. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
Great news. As of 22 April 2020, Wikipedia is a reliable source on whether or not a populated place is spelled with a macron.
- Bhattacharya, Rohit (27 April 2020). "10 Of The Creepiest Wikipedia Pages You Should Read, If You're Brave Enough That Is". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
The annals of Wikipedia are an irresistible rabbit hole - you enter looking for something as inane as a person's birth date, and next thing you know, you're 5 pages deep into the life and times of murderer Ted Bundy. There's also records of all kinds of strange and disturbing events on there, which are as interesting as they are unsettling.
- Chesler, Phyllis (27 April 2020). "Palestinian Lies Never Die; Wikipedia and Google Keep Them Alive". Algemeiner Journal. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
"Occupation" is a word that dominates most debate about Israel, but the truth is that pro-Palestinian propagandists are occupying Google and Wikipedia to keep debunked narratives alive.
- Leetaru, Kalev (29 April 2020). "Biden vs. Kavanaugh: How the #MeToo Numbers Stack Up". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
It isn't just the TV news media that have covered the allegations so differently. A closer look at Biden's and Kavanaugh's Wikipedia pages and the discussion on the "Talk" pages for their entries (where contributors and editors discuss disagreements about what should be included in an article) shows their differing treatments.
- Barui, Vivek (30 April 2020). "Goof-up in Wikipedia profile: Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh identified as chief minister". Dna India. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
There was a goof-up in the Wikipedia profile of West Bengal BJP State President and MP Dilip Ghosh. On Thursday, Wikipedia mistakenly identified Dilip Ghosh as the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
May
- Vago, Mike (3 May 2020). "These Wikipedia subjects are not who they claim to be". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
We explore some of Wikipedia's oddities in our 6,070,641-week series, Wiki Wormhole. This week's entry: List of impostors.
- Hale Spencer, Saranac (4 May 2020). "Legislative History of CARES Act Doesn't Prove COVID-19 Conspiracy". FactCheck.org. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
Despite the typo in the Wikipedia entry, social media posts are circulating with screen grabs of the 2017 date say things like, "Check the dates.. PlanneDemic," and "Clearly a PLAN – DEMIC." But the posts prove no such thing. All they show is a typo on Wikipedia and a misrepresentation of the bill's legislative history.
- Alexandru, Micu (5 May 2020). "Meet the Internet's unsung heroes: Wikipedia's human collaborators". ZME Science. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
In my eyes, they're the unsung heroes, the 'real MVPs' of the internet, and a list commemorating their work is the least of what we should do for them. But let's get to know who they are so that we know who to be thankful to while scrambling to meet that paper deadline in the wee hours of the morning.
- "Wikipedia Swastha initiative aims to fight COVID-19 fake news: See how". India TV. 7 May 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
Much like WhatsApp, Facebook and more, Wikipedia has also jumped onto the bandwagon to provide people with accurate information with its Swastha initiative. Read on to know more about it.
- Barreiro Jr., Victor (8 May 2020). "Jose Calida given 'demonic' nickname on Wikipedia, but it doesn't stick". Rappler. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
Attempts to make alterations to the Wikipedia page of Solicitor General Jose Calida appeared to fail this week, following his successful push to have the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) order media giant ABS-CBN to cease operations.
- Bhattacharya, Rohit (8 May 2020). "10 Even More Creepy Wikipedia Pages To Read & Freak Yourself Out With". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
There's a lot of free time nowadays we can spend reading random stuff on the internet. Especially when it comes to he creepy and the bizarre, it's like this lockdown has awakened the horror lover in us all. Wikipedia has a bunch of extremely disturbing reads on all kinds of subject matter, perfect to dive into and while away the hours.
- Little, Simon (10 May 2020). "B.C. school trustee blasted for transgender coronavirus conspiracy theory attacking Dr. Theresa Tam". Global News. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
He goes on to call Canada's chief medical health officer a "major player in the corrupt World Health Organization," while making allegations about her sexuality citing suspicions on Wikipedia.
- Haseltine, Eric (11 May 2020). "Mysterious Blips Raise Questions About COVID-19 Timeline". Psychology Today. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
Taken together, the "blips" in Google and Wikipedia search records suggest a heightened curiosity about SARS/Coronavirus in early Fall 2019, one to two months before the first confirmed cases.
- Tredinnick, Jessamy (12 May 2020). "Fans outraged as the elimination of one of MasterChef Australia's favourite contestants is 'revealed' on Wikipedia - a week before the episode goes to air". Daily Mail. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
On the page's elimination chart, a surprising additional contestant has been listed as being 'eliminated' after Chris Badenoch was sent home on Sunday night.
- Althouse, Spencer (12 May 2020). "15 Wild Wikipedia Pages About Old Hollywood Actors, Movies, And Scandals". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
We asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the most fascinating Wikipedia pages about Old Hollywood. Here are the ones that'll keep you entertained for days.
- Landry, Katelyn (14 May 2020). "Can a Virtual Edit-a-Thon make Wikipedia More Inclusive?". Houstonia. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
None of Houston's former or current poet laureates have articles, nor do any of the rising female rappers we mentioned in a feature last year. A new series of free, online Wikipedia editing workshops aim to change that by training its participants in how to create and edit articles to increase the online exposure of Bayou City women artists.
- Bennetts, Marc (15 May 2020). "Kremlin drops plans for state-approved Wikipedia". The Times. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
No reason was given for the decision to scrap the project, but it is likely to have been a result of a mounting economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus lockdown and a collapse in global prices for oil, Russia's main export.
- Flood, Brian (21 May 2020). "Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger says online encyclopedia scrapped neutrality, favors lefty politics". Fox News. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
Sanger – who is no longer with involved with Wikipedia – wrote that it has long forgotten its original policy of aiming to present information from a neutral point of view, and nowadays the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia "can be counted on" to cover politics with a liberal point of view.
- "Wikipedia sets new rule to combat "toxic behaviour"". BBC. 23 May 2020. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation that runs the site, voted on new measures that will be finalised by the end of the year.
- Laudato, Anthony (May 24, 2020). "The rise of Wikipedia as a source of medical information". CBS News. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
Wikipedia's pages on COVID-19 and the pandemic are viewed more than a million times a day, and edited almost every hour of the day.
- Robertson, Adi (May 25, 2020). "Wikimedia is writing new policies to fight Wikipedia harassment". The Verge. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
Wikipedia plans to crack down on harassment and other "toxic" behavior with a new code of conduct. The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, which oversees Wikipedia among other projects, voted on Friday to adopt a more formal moderation process.
- Bradley, David (May 26, 2020). "Negapedia provides deep information about Wikipedia editorial layers". Tech Xplore. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
Writing in the International Journal of Big Data Intelligence, a team from Italy describe the 'Negapedia' system, which is an online public service that offers a more complete picture of the underlying layers of Wikipedia.
- Keck, Catie (May 26, 2020). "Wikimedia Is Overhauling Its Communities to Clean Up Harassment". Gizmodo. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
In a statement on the foundation's culture and that of its respective properties, the board made it clear that more can and should be done to create safer and more inclusive spaces.
- Harrison, Stephen (May 27, 2020). "Future Historians Will Rely on Wikipedia's COVID-19 Coverage". Slate. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
But today's wealth of Wikipedia content will also be valuable to future parties. As scholar and Wikimedia program coordinator Liam Wyatt writes, the "text in Wikipedia's archive will be of interest to linguists, historians or sociologists of the year 4000."
June
- Nardi, Christopher (June 3, 2020). "Federal government went on 'draconian witch hunts' after news stories on Wikipedia edits by bureaucrats". National Post. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
"Our analysis reveals that in practice almost none of the edits are partisan-political, and that many of the edits represent highly valuable contributions to public knowledge," the authors write after analyzing over 800 @gccaedits tweets.
- Harrison, Stephen (June 9, 2020). "How Wikipedia Became a Battleground for Racial Justice". Slate. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
Contributors are rethinking what Wikipedia's commitment to neutrality actually means.
- Zara, Christopher (June 10, 2020). "Seattle's 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' already has a Wikipedia page, but it might not last". Fast Company. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
A section of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood where protestors have built barriers and declared themselves autonomous has already made it into the history books—or at least onto Wikipedia.
- Perez, Sarah (June 11, 2020). "Facebook tests Wikipedia-powered information panels, similar to Google, in its search results". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
We've found the new feature can be fairly hit or miss, however. For starters, it doesn't always recognize a search term as a proper title. A search for "joker," for instance displayed a Wikipedia-powered information box for the movie. But a search for "parasite" failed to do so for the Oscar-winning title that in 2020 became the first non-English film to win Best Picture.
- Pero, James (June 12, 2020). "Facebook tests features that adds information from Wikipedia to search results on its platform". Daily Mail. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
As noted by SocialMediaToday, who was the first to note that the feature is being introduced, the feature is similar to Google's 'Knowledge Panels' which were added in 2012. ... For now, the feature is a pilot program, according to Techcrunch, and is live for English users with iOS, on desktop, or using mobile web.
- Yandoli, Kayla (June 13, 2020). "15 Wikipedia Pages About Historical Queer Actors, Writers, And Figures You'll Want To Read Right Now". BuzzFeed. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
We asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their favorite Wikipedia pages about historical queer figures. Here are the fascinating results:
- Everington, Keoni (June 15, 2020). "Wikipedia finally designates Taiwan as 'country'". Taiwan News. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
In a request for comments (RFC) page created to debate the proper status of Taiwan in its Wikipedia entry, editors in May fiercely debated the merits of referring to Taiwan as a "state" or a "country."
- "Health Minister David Clark's Wikipedia entry edited following controversy with Dr Ashley Bloomfield". New Zealand Herald. 26 June 2020. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
Health Minister David Clark's Wikipedia entry was today edited to include a new piece of information. As of earlier this morning, the entry about Clark on Wikipedia states that he is, as well as the Minister for Health, "an avid campaigner for throwing under the bus policy".
- "David Clark's Wikipedia changed". Newshub. 26 June 2020. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020.
Social media has had a field-week with David Clark, from Newshub's video capturing the brutal moment he blamed director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield for the country's border control failings in front of him, to memes making fun of the Health Minister. Now, someone has taken to his Wikipedia page.
July
- Chávez, Aída (2 July 2020). "There's a War Going on Over Kamala Harris's Wikipedia Page, With Unflattering Elements Vanishing". The Intercept. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
At least one highly dedicated Wikipedia user has been scrubbing controversial aspects of Harris's 'tough-on-crime' record from her Wikipedia page.
- Olson, Tyler (6 July 2020). "Kamala Harris' Wikipedia page scrubbed of information amid veepstakes, igniting online fight". Fox News. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
An online battle has erupted over the Wikipedia page for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., with a significant uptick in edits that reflects a pattern that's been seen ahead of past vice-presidential announcements and led Wikipedia to put the page under "discretionary sanctions."
- Dormehl, Luke (7 July 2020). "If Section 230 gets killed, Wikipedia will die along with it". Digital Trends. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
"[If we were to] live in a world where there is no Section 230 in the United States, that changes things drastically," Sherwin Siy, the Wikimedia Foundation's senior manager for public policy, told Digital Trends.
- Menegus, Bryan (8 July 2020). "Did the NYPD Try to Scrub References to Police Brutality From Its Wikipedia Page?". Gizmodo. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
While we legally cannot, with 100% certainty, claim "New York's finest" tried to lazily edit their own entry on Wikipedia to be infinitely more flattering—signs point strongly toward them doing precisely that!
- Wyrich, Andrew (8 July 2020). "NYPD caught trying to edit 'police brutality' out of its Wikipedia page". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) on Wednesday edited a portion of its Wikipedia page to try and gloss over references to police brutality and misconduct, according to a Twitter account that tracks NYPD changes to Wikipedia articles.
- 冼國強 (10 July 2020). "黃之鋒涉犯刑罪 煽人滋擾記者". Ta Kung Pao (in Chinese).
自由編改的「維基百科」成為反對派抹黑武器,亦為戀殖播「獨」的溫床!記者發現,包括「佔中」發起人戴耀廷、前香港眾志秘書長黃之鋒、公民黨主席胡志偉、公民黨黨魁楊岳橋等多名反對派政客,於維基百科條目中的出生地一欄均為「英屬香港」。[Free encyclopedia "Wikipedia" has become a tool of the "opposition camp", and a hotbed of "colonial nostalgia" and "Hong Kong independence"! I find that in Wikipedia, the birthplace of many "opposition camp" politicians, such as Benny Tai, Joshua Wong, Wu Chi-wai and Alvin Yeung, is "British Hong Kong".]
- Spence, Sam (July 10, 2020). "Sheriff Al Cannon's campaign paid $500 to create his Wikipedia page". Charleston City Paper. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
The reelection campaign for Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon paid a sheriff's office employee to create his Wikipedia page during his off-duty hours.
- Durling, Jessica R. (12 July 2020). "Not always accurate: Wikipedia said Carrot River mayor resigned after T-rex scandal". Humboldt Journal.
Due to a Wikipedia edit, the Town of Carrot River found themselves explaining that their mayor is not 'Chuck Freeborn' and their previous mayor was not deposed during a t-rex scandal that involved famous American actor Jeff Goldblum.
- Miller, Andrew Mark (July 14, 2020). "Former Wikipedia editor says website engaged in multiyear smear campaign against Mark Levin". Washington Examiner. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
A former editor at Wikipedia says that the online encyclopedia engaged in a multiyear smear campaign against conservative radio host Mark Levin.
- Adams, Josie (July 16, 2020). "How volunteers created Wikipedia's world-beating Covid-19 coverage". The Spinoff. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
There are more than 5,200 articles about Covid-19 on Wikipedia. One defines the disease, and another the virus that causes it. Articles describe the virus's impact on everything from disc golf to human rights. Timelines abound; you can follow Covid-19's progress day by day, or country by country.
- Leask, David (July 20, 2020). "Wikipedia war over Henry Dundas slavery role". The Times. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
Lord Melville described the Dundas Wikipedia entry as a "rag-doll being pulled in different directions".
- Goldsbrough, Susannah (July 22, 2020). "How Mrs America's son is flying the conservative flag – and fighting Wikipedia's 'liberal lies'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
In the 2000s, he was one of many volunteers to edit Wikipedia, but he gave up, feeling that it attracted what he calls "a mob of mostly young men who… have been allowed to bully others and enforce a certain liberal point-of-view.
- Dri, Karwan Faidhi (July 23, 2020). "Kurdish language thrives online thanks to hidden heroes". Rudaw Media Network. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
While Wikipedia is now available in Kurmanji, Sorani and Zazaki dialects, only Kurmanji has a Wiktionary page ('Wikifereng') which allows users in Turkey and beyond to delve deeper into their own language, and access translations to others.
- Darcy, Oliver (July 24, 2020). "Wikipedia administrators caution editors about using Fox News as source on 'contentious' claims". CNN. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
The Wikipedia community recently engaged in a spirited debate over whether Fox News is a reliable enough source to use as a citation in entries on the encyclopedia. Dozens and dozens of editors, all of whom are volunteers, weighed in for what was a lively online discussion.
- "Wikipedia makes an 'awkward' request for donations in India". Hindustan Times. July 30, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
The online encyclopedia is urging its users in India to donate a sum ranging between ₹150 to ₹5,000.
August
- Dasgupta, Sravasti (August 2, 2020). "'Biased, anti-Hindu' — campaign begins against Wikipedia after it urges Indians to donate". ThePrint. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
A social media campaign, spearheaded by prominent right-wing personalities accusing Wikipedia of being 'anti-Hindu', began trending Saturday, three days after the open-source information website asked Indian users to donate to 'defend Wikipedia's independence'.
- Hogan, Ginny; Viti, Eugenia (August 4, 2020). "More Precise Names for the "Personal Life" Section on Wikipedia". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
The only section that makes Wikipedia better than an encyclopedia
- Andrews, Travis M. (August 7, 2020). "Covid-19 is one of Wikipedia's biggest challenges ever. Here's how it's handling that". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
"As someone who studies misinformation and disinformation, it's kind of a ray of hope in a sea of pollution," West added. "It's almost like people's passion to get things right and to be these curators of human knowledge makes them even more careful."
- Parsons, Ryan (August 7, 2020). "The Best Penn State Wikipedia Entries". Onward State. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
If you're a Penn State student, chances are you've got a close relationship with good ol' Wikipedia.
- Fontevecchia, Agustino (August 8, 2020). "Cristina vs. Google and the invisible battle for Wikipedia". Buenos Aires Times. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
It's unclear whether Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is aware or not, but a silent culture war is being fought in the digital theatre. Wikipedia is one of the main battlegrounds.
- Cohen, Noam (August 10, 2020). "Why Wikipedia Decided to Stop Calling Fox a 'Reliable' Source". Wired. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
With this latest decision, Wikipedia offers a promising model for digital platforms.
- "Hausa language tops articles content on Wikipedia writing contest". P.M. News. August 10, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation has said that the Hausa language topped the list of articles created by language category on Wikipedia women writing contest.
- Dafoe, Taylor (August 12, 2020). "Wikipedia Entries About Female Artists of Color Tend to Be Lacking. So Volunteers Fleshed Out 85 of Them in a Virtual Edit-a-Thon". Artnet. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
"Many of the articles are skimpy and do not rise to the standard of other artists. By simply enumerating the Black women artists whose articles could be improved, we made an important step forward in correcting the invisibility of these artists."
- Reddin, Gary (August 12, 2020). "Wannabe Wired: Learning to love Wikipedia". Lawton Constitution. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
For nearly a decade I had been taught one simple truth, Wikipedia was a place that truth went to die. What changes were made within the website to create a newfound trust among teachers?
- Ross, T. Carter (August 13, 2020). "Wikipedia Updates Radio Infoboxes". Radio World. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
Because Wikipedia pages tend to appear high in Google search results, it is worth checking your stations' articles to see if there is incomplete or missing information, both in the new infobox and the article.
- Benton, Joshua (August 13, 2020). "The Wikipedia War That Shows How Ugly This Election Will Be". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
Once the news broke, many of the first edits to Harris's Wikipedia page were the sort of structural maintenance done by veteran editors on the site: citing sources, attaching categories, improving captions, and adding a notice that Harris was "a person involved in a current event," and as such, "information may change rapidly as the event progresses."
- Philipose, Rahel (August 14, 2020). "Explained: Why is Wikipedia asking users for donations?". The Indian Express. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
The fundraising drive sparked heated debates amongst social media users — some of whom questioned whether one of the world's most popular websites really needed donations to stay afloat.
- Schwartz, Barry (August 24, 2020). "Google: Links From Wikipedia Does Nothing For Your Site & Has No SEO Value". Search Engine Roundtable. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
Google's John Mueller said on Reddit that links from Wikipedia not only have no SEO value but also those links "will do nothing for your site" from a Google search perspective.
- Stabile, Carol (August 24, 2020). "19th Amendment Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon Helps Close Gaps in Women's History". Ms. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
For editors creating or editing Wikipedia content on those marginalized within Wikipedia's vast database, it can be frustrating to write topics in for which secondary sources are scarce—a problem well-documented by contributors like mathematician Marie Vitulli, who has worked to write women mathematicians into Wikipedia.
- Song, Victoria (August 25, 2020). "Alleged Teen Brony Has Filled the Scots Wiki With Thousands of Fake Translations [Update: Confirmed Teen, No Longer Brony]". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
...I have never been to Scotland, do not know anyone from Scotland, and do not speak Scots. However, my editor then dropped this Reddit post into our Slack and thus, I fell headfirst into the Scots Wikipedia rabbit hole.
- Cook, James (August 27, 2020). "American teenager 'devastated' after filling thousands of Scots Wikipedia articles with 'gibberish'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
Wikipedia users claimed this had led to thousands of articles written in "Scotched English" featuring made up words and "gibberish". Some users called for the page to be deleted entirely. "The only real answer is to nuke it," one said.
- Wade, Mike; Yeomans, Emma (August 27, 2020). "Wikipedia boy butchers Scots language with years of errors". The Times. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
As one of the few substantial online resources that claims to be in Scots, its error-strewn pages are used for translation and language services offered by tech companies. A Facebook tool, free for other programmers to use, lists Scots as one of the languages it can process based on Wikipedia.
- "The Times Scotland view on the perils of Wikipedia: Language Lesson". The Times. August 27, 2020. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
A wikipage is only as neutral as its contributor and its administrator. The more arcane the subject matter the fewer active Wikipedia enthusiasts there are in that field. Not every area of human discourse has a dedicated team of referees to police how it is presented online.
- "The Big Wiki Rewrite". Scots Language Centre. August 27, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
However, help is now at hand. As a result of the recent discussions around this issue, the Scots Language Centre was approached for advice and director Dr Michael Dempster offered to mediate, co-ordinate and bring interested parties together. It was soon discovered that there is a strong desire by many in the Scots-speaking community to come forward and help in a constructive way.
- Rivero, Nicolás (August 27, 2020). "How a Scots Wikipedia scandal highlighted AI's data problem". Quartz (publication). Retrieved September 4, 2020.
"I don't think people necessarily realize how important Wikipedia is for training all of our language technologies," said David Yarowsky, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University.
- Yadav, Jyoti (August 29, 2020). "'Vagina' is top search on Bhojpuri Wikipedia, bringing vulgar songs back under scanner". ThePrint. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
However, a completely different trend emerged from the analysis of Wikipedia's Bhojpuri pages — the most visited page was the one about "bur", the local word for vagina. And searches about female genitalia and sexual positions, the report says, led Bhojpuri searches for the entire seven-month analysis period.
- Ishisaka, Naomi (August 31, 2020). "Wikipedia falsely said I was convicted of attempted murder. I expected online abuse, but not this". The Seattle Times.
To their credit, the admins said that they would not reinstate the page, in part because it was a 'serious' violation of Wikipedia's rules around Biographies of Living Persons.
September
- Sadu, Charan (September 6, 2020). "Building Wikipedia, in Kannada and Tulu". The Times of India. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
A meeting in Mangaluru in 2014 and the subsequent formation of Karavali Wikipedia Users' Group in early 2017 gave fillip to Tulu. The 23rd Indian language to have a Wiki edition went live in 2016 (after eight years of being in incubation), and has 1,350 articles now.
- Spiro, James (September 6, 2020). "Wikipedia is the perfect Covid-19 datasource, says IBM research director for healthcare informatics". Calcalist. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
Rosen-Zvi discovered that thousands of people were crowdsourcing global information about Covid-19 in the most unlikely, but obvious, location: Wikipedia.
- Dowd, Rachael (September 7, 2020). "The longest Wikipedia page has just been updated and it may surprise you". Alternative Press. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
Wikipedia's top ten longest pages are on various subjects that are both relevant to current times and also unexpected. Donald Trump's page comes in at No. 9 with 476,573 bytes while his presidency page ranks at No. 8 with 478,194 bytes.
- Harrison, Stephen (September 9, 2020). "What Happens to Scots Wikipedia Now?". Slate. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
If there is any reason to think the situation with Scots Wikipedia will improve over time, it might simply be that Wikipedia editors themselves are quite industrious—and, relatively speaking, more forgiving.
- Carroll, Joanne (September 12, 2020). "NZ tourism's Wikipedia problem: Fox Glacier page dominated by deaths, rural NZ non-existent". Stuff. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
New Zealand has a Wikipedia problem, according to Wikipedian at Large Dr Mike Dickison.
- Bubna, Vidhi (September 15, 2020). "5 Tips To Get Yourself a Personal Wikipedia Page". Entrepreneur. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
Not everyone can have them because they are expensive and time consuming to create. However, having them improves your future career prospects, credibility and connection with your audience.
- Hern, Alex (September 18, 2020). "Wikipedia edits have massive impact on tourism, say economists". The Guardian. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
An experiment by economists at the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy, found that a few simple edits to a Wikipedia page could lead to an extra £100,000 a year in tourism revenue for a small city, underscoring the power of the free online encyclopaedia. ... Most of the content added was simply translated over from the Spanish Wikipedia into either French, German, Italian.
- "#KyivnotKiev: Wikipedia changes spelling of Ukrainian capital". UNIAN. September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
The press service suggested that the moderators decided to "rename" the article because of the growing use of "Kyiv" in English-language sources.
- Antoniuk, Daryna (September 18, 2020). "Kyiv not Kiev: Wikipedia changes spelling of Ukrainian capital". Kyiv Post. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
Wikipedia couldn't change the mistake earlier because it just displayed the spelling that is most popular among prestigious international media outlets, the Ukrainian representative office of Wikipedia said.
- Rowles, Dustin (September 20, 2020). "Here's Exactly What Jimmy Kimmel Wrote On John Krasinski And Justin Theroux's Wikipedia Pages". Uproxx. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
Kimmel, however, apparently often likes to alter Wikipedia pages as pranks...
- Lyles, Taylor (September 23, 2020). "Wikipedia is getting its first desktop redesign in 10 years". The Verge. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
Now, the overall look of Wikipedia on desktop is getting a makeover for the first time in a decade to make the site more approachable for new users.
- Borrelli, Christopher (September 24, 2020). "How to un-erase Black artists overlooked by history? Write their Wikipedia pages". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
Six years later, Valentine and Hart have introduced more than 1,200 entries on Black artists and institutions to Wikipedia, while modifying the existing entries of far more.
- Nusbaum, Spencer (September 25, 2020). "American Archive 'edit-a-thons' enhance Wikipedia with pubmedia content". Current. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
Edit-a-thons help to revise and improve Wikipedia pages about a specific topic or type of content. The first edit-a-thon, which was held Thursday, had a "Constitution Day" theme, selecting from AAPB archives and exhibits that concern free speech and protests as they relate to the U.S. Constitution.
- O'brien, Peter (September 29, 2020). "Something Wiki This Way Comes". Quadrant. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
I had noticed that the Wikipedia article on Pascoe made no mention of my book Bitter Harvest, which is the most authoritative, almost the only, counter to his blatant nonsense, misquotation and fabrications. I had also noticed that the article canvassed the issue of his dodgy Aboriginality and so it occurred to me that there might be a place in the article for a mention of the existence of Bitter Harvest...etc
- Magnier, Mark (September 30, 2020). "Beijing blocking Wikipedia from United Nations intellectual property agency over Taiwan is resistance against 'Western values', analysts say". South China Morning Post. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
China's move to deny observer status for San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's parent, at the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) dovetails with Beijing's long-standing policy of limiting international recognition of the self-governing island.
October
- "Mattatuck hosts Art and Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon". Republican-American. October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
The museum archivist, Stephanie Crawford, will guide participants in helping to bring women artists currently missing or misrepresented on Wikipedia onto the pages of the digital encyclopedia.
- Benjakob, Omer (October 1, 2020). "The Second Intifada Still Rages on Wikipedia". Haaretz. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
Beyond documenting the intifada itself as it happened, the article also documented something no less important: the battle over the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This skirmish proved pivotal to Wikipedia's own history.
- Wentz, Jim (October 3, 2020). "Going wacky for Wikipedia". Altoona Mirror. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
I know enough about most celebrities so there are only parts of their lives for which I need to fill in the blanks. That specialized information is usually contained in two parts of Wikipedia's biographical format: the "Early Life" and "Personal Life" sections. In Early Life, I learn about their parents, education and factors that molded their lives. In Personal Life is the juicy stuff: marriages, divorces, affairs, squandered wealth and scandals.
- Ledsom, Alex (October 3, 2020). "Improving Wikipedia Pages Can Wildly Increase Revenue For Cities". Forbes. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
However, it was clear during the research that there is one major snag in using Wikipedia in this way—the site doesn't allow commercial gain (it is famously advert-free) and relies entirely on public contributions and volunteers to update the site.
- Arbor, Ann (October 6, 2020). "Libraries seek volunteers to boost Ypsilanti-related Wikipedia pages". Mlive. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
An edit-a-thon, hosted by the Ypsilanti District and University of Michigan libraries, is a virtual event to help boost the city of Ypsilanti and related Wikipedia pages to be more representative of the community, said Sam Killian, community relations coordinator at the Ypsilanti library.
- Bernardo, Carla (October 7, 2020). "TLC2020: 8 reasons to use Wikipedia in teaching and learning". University of Cape Town News. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
Students are often warned against using Wikipedia in their work: it's commonly referred to as an unreliable source, particularly because anyone can edit an article. Offering an alternative view is one of UCT Libraries' Wikibrarians, Ingrid Thomson, who shared the many benefits of using Wikipedia in teaching and learning.
- Harrison, Stephen (October 9, 2020). "The Wikipedia Battle Over the Tragic Death of a Bollywood Star". Slate. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
The most-trafficked English Wikipedia page for a deceased celebrity in 2020 was that of an Indian movie star who was relatively unknown outside his own country.
- Cooper, Chet (October 13, 2020). "Katherine Maher, CEO and Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation". Ability. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
Katherine Maher dispels the darkness of our minds and enlightens us about the inner workings of Wikipedia and her goals for the organization.
- Pandya, Jay (October 14, 2020). "'Sushant Singh Rajput Was Murdered; Please Change His Wikipedia Status,' Demands Petition". Republic TV. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
The Wikipedia page of Sushant Singh Rajput shows the cause of death as 'Suicide by hanging' and it has not gone well with his family friend Smita Parikh.
- "Wikipedia censors traditional marriage supporters". Christian Institute. October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
Messages such as "onemanonewoman" have been removed from editor 'userboxes' on the online encyclopaedia.
- Kumar, Anugrah (October 18, 2020). "Wikipedia bans editors from expressing support for traditional marriage". The Christian Post. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
Volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia's articles can no longer include on their profile page any "userbox" — a badge expressing their beliefs — that is against gay marriage. For example, one such userbox states, "This user believes marriage is between one man and one woman."
- "Wikipedia Bans Editors from Supporting Traditional Marriage, Has Double-Standard for LGBT Support". Christian Broadcasting Network. October 19, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
One administrator even said during the discussion that he considered a userbox supporting the BLM movement acceptable, one stating "All Lives Matter would be...deeply problematic" in his opinion.
- Colton, Emma (October 19, 2020). "Jeffrey Toobin's Wikipedia page briefly updated with section devoted to him exposing himself during virtual meeting". Washington Examiner. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
Journalist Jeffrey Toobin's Wikipedia page was briefly updated with a section titled 'Zoom Dick Incident' on Monday to reflect a recent controversy in which he exposed himself during a virtual meeting.
- Garfield, Simon (October 20, 2020). "What We Know And Can Agree On: Wikipedia At 20". Esquire. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
You could make a strong case for suggesting that Wikipedia is the most valuable single site online, and the most eloquent and enduring representative of the internet as a force for good.
- McNeil, Donald G., Jr. (October 22, 2020). "Wikipedia and W.H.O. Join to Combat Covid Misinformation". The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
The health agency will license much of its material to the online encyclopedia, allowing the information to be reposted widely into almost 200 languages.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Tezuka, Shuichi; Ashtear, inda A. (October 22, 2020). "The left-wing bias of Wikipedia". The Critic. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
We examine specific mechanisms that produce political bias in Wikipedia, with a focus on administrative decisions at the Arbitration Enforcement noticeboard. We also discuss how this bias ultimately affects the site's content.
- "The World Health Organization and Wikimedia Foundation expand access to trusted information about COVID-19 on Wikipedia". World Health Organization. October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that administers Wikipedia, announced today a collaboration to expand the public's access to the latest and most reliable information about COVID-19.
- Guzman, Joseph (October 22, 2020). "Wikipedia and WHO collaborate to provide better coronavirus information". The Hill. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
The partners said by allowing WHO's resources to be freely used, Wikipedia's 250,000 volunteer editors can build on and expand the site's COVID-19 coverage, which currently offers more than 5,200 coronavirus-related articles in 175 languages.
- Mann, Mary (October 23, 2020). "Opinion – To Learn the Truth, Read My Wikipedia Entry on Sichuan Peppers". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
Then, while reading lazy half-truths about Sichuan pepper at my kitchen counter, it was as if I received some librarian version of the bat signal, a single round peppercorn outlined against the night sky. Here, I was needed. Here, I could do something. It was easy to begin. The barrier to entry for editing Wikipedia is low, and I already had a Wikipedia account.
- Cohen, Noam (October 26, 2020). "Wikipedia's Plan to Resist Election Day Misinformation". Wired. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
The encyclopedia is determined to emerge from the insanity of a pandemic and a polarizing election with its information and reputation intact.
- Harrison, Stephen (October 27, 2020). "Why Did It Take So Long for the Democratic Senate Candidate in Iowa to Get a Wikipedia Page?". Slate. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
'We are in an embarrassing situation where a clearly notable politician who appears poised to win a seat in the US Senate doesn't have an article—a complete failure of our mission to deliver high quality information to the world,' Jimmy Wales wrote, using his Wikipedia alias Jimbo.
- Steinsson, Sverrir (October 27, 2020). "Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield finally got her Wikipedia page. Here's why it took so long". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
Greenfield is an uniquely tricky case for Wikipedia because she doesn't have the background that most candidates for major political office typically have (like prior government experience or prominence in business). Even if Wikipedia editors could recognize she was prominent, she had a hard time meeting the official criteria for notability.
- Binder, Matt (October 27, 2020). "Wikipedia prepares for election day misinformation". Mashable. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
A scenario where nefarious users attempt to edit Wikipedia pages with unofficial or even entirely fabricated election results seems entirely plausible, if not expected. Wikipedia is preparing itself for this. We'll see if it's effective next week.
- Lytvynenko, Jane (October 27, 2020). "The White Extremist Group Patriot Front Is Preparing For A World After Donald Trump". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
The obsession with secrecy also led to a Wikipedia editing war in September.... By the end of the day, the Wikipedia editors lost, and Patriot Front no longer appeared on the page.
- Walters, Daniel (October 29, 2020). "Something Wikipedia This Way Comes". Inlander. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
Horror is such a crucial part of American culture, the foundation of so many references and homages, that completely covering my eyes is hardly a solution. I'm left with the same sort of foolish curiosity that plagues the victims in these movies: I know I shouldn't go in there, but some dark force still compels me to find out what happens. Enter Wikipedia.
- Culliford, Elizabeth (October 29, 2020). "Wikipedia buttons up key pages ahead of U.S. election". Reuters. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
We're really worried about coordinated actors ... trying to find a way to disseminate information ... in a way that could cause people, for example, to choose not to vote or to influence the outcome of the election based on something that was not true.
- "How to contribute climate change information to Wikipedia - A guide for researchers, practitioners and communicators". ReliefWeb. October 30, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
Wikipedia is a key channel to enable sharing of climate change information between the scientific and policy communities, as well as the general public.
- Young, Toby (October 30, 2020). "There's nothing neutral about Wikipedia". The Spectator. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
I've tried to set the record straight, but it's a smear that just won't die because it sits right at the top of my Wikipedia page. For lazy journalists, Wikipedia is the only thing they read when 'researching' an article.
- Massey, Wyatt (October 28, 2020). "Wikipedia Wants Your Pics of Montana Historical Places". KBUL (AM). Retrieved November 1, 2020.
Wikipedia is looking for your photos of historical sites. They're calling it "the world's largest photography contest" and it ends October 31st. Montana has over 1,000 nationally recognized historic sites and Wikipedia breaks them down by county. Odds seem pretty good that you likely have a good picture of at least one of these historic places in Big Sky Country.
- Yurieff, Kaya (October 30, 2020). "How Wikipedia will fight Election Day misinformation". CNN. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
Staffers at Wikipedia's parent organization and the volunteer editors who maintain its millions of pages have a plan to ensure that election-related entries aren't improperly edited.
- "China Now Has The Ability to Track Internet Users Who 'Scale The Wall'". Radio Free Asia. October 30, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang recently detained and warned an internet user after they were detected using a circumvention tool to read information on Wikipedia, which lies outside China's complex network of blocks, filters, and human censorship known as the Great Firewall.
November
- Weinglass, Simona (November 1, 2020). "Wikipedia probe exposes an Israeli stealth PR firm that worked for scammers". The Times of Israel. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
The company, known as Percepto (formerly Veribo), allegedly edited Wikipedia entries having to do with a Canadian charity that later became embroiled in a scandal involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to the Signpost article.
- Nieva, Richard (November 2, 2020). "Wikipedia's disinformation task force braces for a high-stakes election". CNET. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
Dozens of people across the foundation's security, product, legal and communications teams have set up protections for the website, guiding the hundreds of unpaid volunteers who edit its pages.
- Morrison, Sara (November 2, 2020). "How Wikipedia is preparing for Election Day". Vox.
This will be the sixth presidential election in Wikipedia's lifetime, and the site's all-volunteer army of thousands of editors has used those years of experience to develop and refine methods of combating lies and inaccuracies during prominent breaking new events while also identifying and deleting anything incorrect or poorly sourced that happens to make it onto their pages.
- York, Geoffrey; Kerr, Jaren (November 3, 2020). "Wikipedia probe finds illicit editing of WE Charity pages". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
Wikipedia editors, in an article in their online newspaper, said the Israeli firm was working for WE Charity when its employees modified the WE-related articles, making some of them more promotional. But in response to questions from The Globe and Mail on Monday, a senior WE executive denied the allegation and said the charity had never heard of Percepto until a media report this week.
- Benjakob, Omer (November 3, 2020). "A vicious culture war is tearing through Wikipedia". Wired. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
Three local editors say that in recent months, there has been "a push by the right wing to prove Wikipedia has a particular bias", as Subhashish puts it. Wikipedia articles on everything from Brahmanism and Islamophobia in India, to Jai Shri Ram and the 2020 Delhi riots have been beset by massive edit wars.
- Earnheradt, Adam (November 8, 2020). "Help keep Wikipedia free so we can be smart". The Vindicator (Ohio newspaper). Retrieved November 8, 2020.
So, while some facts I learned long ago might not have stuck, I did learn one important strategy early in life: how to research. I learned how to find answers and check their validity. It was for these reasons that I fell in love with Wikipedia.
- Rajpal, Seema (November 9, 2020). "Meet the 25-year-old contributor to Marathi Wikipedia who is inspiring others to chip in too". edexlive. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
Wikipedia is everything. But when it comes to Indian languages there is a whole lot of distance to cover.
- Mills, Laura (November 9, 2020). "50 new Coast pages added to Wikipedia". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
New Zealand's only "Wikipedian at Large", Dr Mike Dickison, recently finished a six-week-long West Coast visit, funded by Development West Coast, to boost the region's presence on the platform.
- Kaufman, Mark (November 11, 2020). "The guardians of Wikipedia's climate page". Mashable. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
The seven-person core now editing the Wikipedia page (though others certainly contribute!), four of whom spoke with Mashable, seeks to make climate science graspable and available to everyone. The group has no tolerance for unsubstantiated facts or biased sources.
- Menand, Louis (November 16, 2020). "Wikipedia, Jeopardy!, and the Fate of the Fact". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
...the consensus is that Wikipedia is the major success story of the Internet era. A ridiculously simple principle—'Anyone can edit'—has produced a more or less responsibly curated, perpetually up-to-date, and infinitely expandable source of information, almost all of it hyperlinked to multiple additional sources.
- Keegan, Brian (November 17, 2020). "How 9/11 Shaped Wikipedia". Slate. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
The availability and timeliness of Wikipedia content around topics of general interest would prove to be critical for its own sustainability in addition to complementing other platforms' need to serve relevant and up-to-date content.
- Young, Ian (November 18, 2020). "Canada border officer who questioned Meng Wanzhou says 10 minutes on Wikipedia gave him suspicions about Iran dealings". South China Morning Post. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
Canada Border Services Agency Superintendent Sanjit Dhillon said he spent five to 10 minutes reviewing the Wikipedia article and it 'gave rise to suspicion' that Meng Wanzhou could be involved in subverting the Canadian government.
- Chiang, Chuck (November 18, 2020). "CBSA official only consulted Wikipedia on research into national security concerns surrounding Meng Wanzhou". Business in Vancouver. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
"Did you check the reliability of this information?" Duckett asked, adding if Dhillon was also aware of the open-sourced nature of Wikipedia information that anyone can edit.
- McDermott, Nick (November 19, 2020). "Scientists advising the Government on pandemic lockdown relied on WIKIPEDIA to make predictions". The Sun (United Kingdom). Retrieved November 19, 2020.
Professor Ian Hall, from Manchester University and deputy chair of SPI-M, said: "The public may be surprised that we were using Wikipedia to get data very early on in the pandemic, but that was really the only data that was publicly available that we could access."
- O'Callaghan, Laura (November 19, 2020). "Boris Johnson's advisers relied on WIKIPEDIA to make vital decisions on Covid lockdown". Daily Express. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
Members of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) turned to the free online encyclopaedia when compiling their reports on possible outcomes of the pandemic. Wikipedia pages can be edited and managed by members of the public. This meant forecasts given to the Prime Minister in mid-March could have been based on inaccurate data – which could have contributed to a delay in the national lockdown.
- Williams, Tom (November 19, 2020). "SAGE experts relied on Wikipedia to model impact of Covid crisis". Metro (British newspaper). Retrieved November 21, 2020.
The government's scientific advisors had to rely on Wikipedia to gather data in the early days of the pandemic in what critics say was a sign of how unprepared Britain was for coronavirus.
- Still, Jennifer (November 25, 2020). "How to create a Wikipedia page for a person, place, company, or any notable topic". Business Insider. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
Unfortunately, while the platform is open and collaborative, you can't just create a page for anything. Wikipedia has notability requirements — mainly that the subject of a new page must have been written about in verifiable publications such as books, magazines, or academic journals, and not previously written about on Wikipedia.
- "Wikipedia Homepage Exposure For New MPs". Scoop. November 25, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
The new Parliament will have its first sitting day on Wednesday and Aotearoa will welcome 42 new MPs. Wikipedia will mark this event by featuring 19 of those new MPs on its homepage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) from 1pm on Wednesday for 24 hours.
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- Cope, Rebecca (November 25, 2020). "This is the surprising person The Crown viewers Googled the most after this series". Tatler. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
That said, audiences still find themselves Googling the storylines of each episode hungrily after watching, with Wikipedia reporting a surge in activity on its site in the past week.
- Benjakob, Omer (November 26, 2020). "On Wikipedia, Israel Is Losing the Battle Against the Word 'Apartheid'". Haaretz. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
Wikipedia has had an article on "Israel and the apartheid analogy" for almost 15 years. However, editors active in this arena told Haaretz that the new entry directly comparing Israel's control of the West Bank to the Black-only enclaves set up in South Africa indicates a possible shifting of balance in the encyclopedia, where facts are decided by consensus between different groups of volunteer editors.
- Still, Jennifer (November 27, 2020). "What is Wikipedia? Here's what you should know about the crowd-sourced and openly edited online encyclopedia". Business Insider. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
Anyone can sign up for a Wikipedia account and create a page about anything, even themselves. Here's everything else you should know before you start using the online encyclopedia.
- Kovalev, Alexey (November 27, 2020). "Unreliable sources". Meduza. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
Before U.S. president-elect Joe Biden formally announced Antony Blinken as his pick for Secretary of State, an anonymous Wikipedia editor took it upon himself to edit Blinken's Wikipedia page.
- Mack, Eric (November 29, 2020). "Liberal Bias of Wikipedia Called Out in 5 Studies". Newsmax. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
The studies have concluded Wikipedia is even more left-biased than the Encyclopedia Britannica, left-wing indoctrination is pushed harder by leftist editors, liberal media is more pronounced in the mentions on that site...
- Kauntia, Nishant (November 30, 2020). "The Edit Wars: How Wikipedia earned the ire of the Hindu Right". The Caravan. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
The Hindu Right, however, has long been harbouring frustrations against the encyclopedia. In the past year, these frustrations found a voice. Once perceived as an apolitical platform, Wikipedia has now turned into a new front in India's culture wars.
December
- Fiorillo, Chiara (December 1, 2020). "Why is Wikipedia asking for money?". The Sun (United Kingdom). Retrieved December 2, 2020.
Wikipedia says it needs donations because they do not carry advertisements, therefore they do not have any ad-related revenue.
- "Govt orders Wikipedia to remove link showing incorrect map of India, says sources". The Hindu. Press Trust of India. 3 December 2020. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
They added that the government can take legal action against the company, including blocking access to the entire platform, in case it does not make the changes.
- Lehman, Olive (3 December 2020). "Wikipedian-in-residence discusses information activism on Wikipedia with online talk". The Gateway (student magazine). Retrieved 4 December 2020.
The online talk discussed how the reliable source guidelines of Wikipedia act as barriers for racialized, feminist, and minority voices.
- Harrison, Stephen (4 December 2020). "Twitter Wants to Use Wikipedia to Help Determine Who Gets a Blue Checkmark". Slate. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
Now that Twitter has caught onto Wikipedia's notability guideline, perhaps somebody should teach them [Citation needed].
- Vago, Mike (4 December 2020). "Here are a few of Wikipedia's most surprisingly controversial topics". Yahoo! Lifestyle. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
Over the years, we've come across Wikipedia articles that fascinated or amused to some degree, but were too short to write a full column about.
- Folsom, Geoff (10 December 2020). "Folsom: Who's Notable (at Least According to Wikipedia)?". Emissourian.com. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
You see, I'm the kind of person who, whenever I hear about a high school, I have to go to Wikipedia to see who its "notable alumni" are. I'll even drive by a school in a major city and ask my wife to immediately look up who went there.
- Shendruk, Amanda (18 December 2020). "The most-read Wikipedia page on each day of 2020". Quartz (publication). Retrieved 18 December 2020.
While they tend to highlight the events, concerns, and people of the year, there are a few unexpected twists, like Johnny Bravo goes to Bollywood. Let's take a look:
- Dhondy, Farrukh (18 December 2020). "Researching Wikipedia on the origins of toxic words". The Asian Age. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
The triviality of what I resort to Wiki for will or may, gentle reader, prompt you to judge me harshly. Today it occurred to me that I had never investigated the origins of the phrase "oopsy daisy"!
- "Pakistan threatens Google, Wikipedia over 'sacrilegious content'". Deutsche Welle. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
"Complaints were also received regarding hosting of caricatures of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and dissemination of misleading, wrong, deceptive and deceitful information through articles published on Wikipedia portraying Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim," the PTA said in a statement published on its official Twitter handle.
- Verma, Akarsh (25 December 2020). "Wikipedia's top read list shows COVID-19 also ruled virtual world in 2020". India Today. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
Here's a list of the top 10 most read Wikipedia articles in 2020. Take a look:
- Bhatt, Madhur (27 December 2020). "Pakistan regulatory body issues notices to Google, Wikipedia for 'disseminating sacrilegious content'". JURIST. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Saturday issued notices to Google and Wikipedia for "disseminating sacrilegious content" through their platforms.
- Turner, Amy-Mae (28 December 2020). "22 facts you never knew about Wikipedia". Mashable. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
21. Wikipedia has an asteroid named after it. The 274301 Wikipedia is a Vestian asteroid orbiting in the inner region of the asteroid belt.
- "What was 'most read' on Wikipedia in 2020?". Geo News. 28 December 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
In 2020, people read the most about the COVID-19 pandemic and the US presidential elections.
- Wodinsky, Shoshana (28 December 2020). "2020's Most Popular Wikipedia Pages: Pandemics, Politics, And Parasite". Gizmodo. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
"This is my sixth annual post sharing the list of Wikipedia's most popular articles of the year" Erhart wrote. "And, as with most things this year, the list was very different."
- Stopera, Matt (29 December 2020). "The Top 40 Most Read Wikipedia Pages Of 2020 Perfectly Capture The Hellscape That Was 2020". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
40. Shooting of Breonna Taylor
- Jackson, Peter (29 December 2020). "Finding facts in a post-truth world". The Chronicle Herald. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
There was a time when the user-generated site Wikipedia was considered an unreliable source of information. Times have changed.