2023-11-29 15:41:59
EDITED – This is not me saying it. It’s Larry Sanger. And what does he no longer trust?
In Wikipedia, the site with “X” billion views (even better than Twitter..) that he founded in 2000 with Jimmy Wales and of which he was the director in its early days.
Wikipedia “I no longer trust” says Larry Sanger, co-founder of the site with billions of views.
We have talked a lot about partial, biased and incomplete information on Wikipedia, leading to significant misinformation bias and thereby contributing to…— Xavier Azalbert ◻ (@xazalbert) October 3, 2023
And here are some explanations he gave on this subject (1):
“We have talked a lot about Wikipedia’s partial, biased and incomplete information, leading to misinformation, and thereby contributing to the laundering of false information.”
How did he arrive at this sad observation?
In its early days, Wikipedia articles were written and monitored, in a collaborative spirit, by a community of volunteers. They were committed to the authenticity of the information that was published in this encyclopedia.
According to Larry Sanger, at the start of the Wikipedia adventure, these volunteers fought to guarantee the authenticity of the information circulating on the site. Unfortunately, this battle, crucial for the neutrality of the encyclopedia, “was abandoned”, he tells us, after 2009.
I agree with him.
In the years that followed, the original neutrality of the platform gradually gave way to partisan information. A bias in favor of the establishment (the “official” truth) which has gone crescendo, with regard to American politics, and particularly for everything relating to Covid: origin of the virus, treatments, vaccines, effects secondary, etc. So much so that Wikipedia has today almost become a relay for the authorities’ propaganda on a number of so-called “sensitive” subjects.
It was, in part, for this reason, Sanger explains, that he left his responsibilities within the site in 2007, describing it as being “beyond repair”. To support his statements, he relies on a few specific examples to explain the “left” shift that Wikipedia has made:
« You can’t quote the Daily Mail. You also can’t quote Fox News on socio-political issues. Forbidden ! What does that mean ? That if a controversy doesn’t appear in the mainstream left-of-center media, it won’t appear on Wikipedia. »
Same on Covid:
“If you look at the Wikipedia articles on this topic, you can simply see that they express the views of the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and various other establishment mouthpieces like Anthony Fauci. There is a global application of a certain point of view, which is surprising for me, surprising also for a libertarian or a freedom-loving conservative.”
As for how Wikipedia’s “entries” (2) are distorted, here is his answer:
“There are companies like Wiki-PR, where paid writers and editors come in and edit articles..”
Duck!
“Wikipedia is now known to everyone to have a great influence in the world. So there is a very important, nasty and complex game going on behind the scenes to make the article say what someone wants it to say..”
For Idriss Aberkane, Wikipedia, with the assistance of mainstream media, contributes to “laundering of false information”. On this subject, just look at the publishing wars that took place around France-Soir who saw his Wikipedia page split in two without any rectification being possible. Which contributes to a unilateral and fragmented vision of information, without any means of control.
Ah, it is certain that with this kind of practice, Wikipedia is now far, very far from respecting the Munich Charter: the obligation to give the reader information that sticks to the truth as much as possible and an indication of the source when the accuracy of the information given could not be fully verified.
Like a poison spreading insidiously, like a pesticide a thousand times more harmful to the consumer than the weed it is supposed to combat, dogmas replace authentic information, transforming into incontestable truths. Slowly but surely…
(1) Comments taken from the interview given to Freddie Sayers from LockdownTV,
(2) Items of information that are published on Wikipedia
#longer #confidence #FranceEvening