Wikipedia should give everyone the willies. Check out its coverage of Israel and the “Palestinians,” or take a look at what it says about Islam. This is what the world — hundreds of millions of people who rely on Wikipedia — is being fed. Now it has made the tiniest of attempts to deal with the problem of anti-Israel animus shared by a cabal of its editors. Two of those pro-Hamas editors have been banned from the site. One small step for mankind; let’s hope there are many more to follow. Here’s the news about the housecleaning at Wikipedia that is just beginning: “Wikipedia suspends pro-Palestine editors coordinating efforts behind the scenes,” by Ohad Merlin, Jerusalem Post, December 12, 2024:
An arbitration committee set up by Wikipedia for “Palestine-Israel Cases” has banned two editors indefinitely and imposed restrictions on three others.
These measures were taken against the said editors following attempts at “canvassing,” which is regarded by Wikipedia as bringing fellow editors into a discussion regarding a specific edit “with the intention of influencing the outcome of a discussion in a particular way, and is considered inappropriate.”
According to Wikipedia’s standards, such instances of canvassing are deemed inappropriate “because they compromise the normal consensus decision-making process, and therefore (it) is generally considered disruptive behavior.”
The committee highlighted the off-wiki misconduct in the Palestine–Israel topic area, accusing editors of making edits in the Palestine–Israel topic area after off-wiki canvassing requests and “encouraging other users to game the extended confirmed restriction and engage in disruptive editing.”
“Wikibias,” an X account that examines these attempts and exposes anti-Israel bias on the Free Encyclopedia, lauded the decision taken by the committee, adding that other “toxic editors” are still manipulating information in articles such as “Use of Human Shields by Hamas.” The outlet continued: “it is high time the Arbitration Committee takes immediate action to thoroughly investigate and hold all editors… accountable for their distortion of Wikipedia content.”…
Disdain toward the bias on the Free Encyclopedia is not limited to activists and reporters only. Larry Sanger, one of the founders and creators of Wikipedia, has also voiced his concerns regarding the bias on the platform Wikipedia, being cited in 2021 as saying that he wouldn’t trust it as a source despite being amongst its creators. Sanger warned that Wikipedia “has changed”, implying that it is no longer “committed to neutrality” as it used to be, due “a big, nasty, complex being made behind the scenes to make the article say what somebody wants them to say.”
Now Wikipedia editors who have for so long been inserting their untruths about Israel and the Palestinians into the website’s offerings are beginning to get their well-deserved comeuppance. Two pro-Hamas editors have now been banned indefinitely. We can hope that others — many others — will follow. Now that the rocks are being lifted, what other lowlife will be exposed to the sunlight of truth? It’s about time.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Just type “Jerusalem” in the Wikipedia search page. You’ll find “City in Southern Levant”. Type in “Damascus”. It says “Capital and largest city in Syria” (although I’ve seen Aleppo mentioned as having a larger population). Type in “Cairo”. It says “Capital City of Egypt”, Moscow? Capital and largest city of Russia
In fact, Wiki goes on to say
Except that every country gets to choose its own capital. Nobody gets to tell Nigeria that its capital is Lagos, not Abuja, or Burma that its capital is Rangoon and not Naypyidaw, or any other country what its capital is. Israel is as sovereign a country as any other, and has the same right on what is essentially its internal affair
For Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capital, first of all, that “State of Palestine” needs to exist, and then, it needs to actually possess Jerusalem. For instance, hypothetically, Pakistan can’t declare its capital Agra since it was the historic Mughal capital, since it’s in the possession of India
But the genius editors at Wiki don’t know that: they treat Israel and “Palestine” as though both have equal claims to Jerusalem as their capital
Peter Johnson says
Then why don’t you become a Wikipedia editor and set things right? It’s open to everyone.
Jovan says
First, you will have to survive long enough to not get blocked and banned on wikipedia as wikipedia’s admins and users bully new users and those with differing points of view.
Even if you manage to not get banned, you will not be able to change the pro-Islamist views on wikipedia, except if you’re lucky in some niche articles. The only allowed sources on wikipedia will be pro-Islamist (sites like jihadwatch are banned on wikipedia’s reliable sources noticeboard) since mainstream media and academia also does not allow criticism of Islam.
A very good recent expose on wikipedia’s bias is this report:
https://www.opindia.com/2024/09/opindia-wikipedia-full-research-paper-left-bias-financial-links-india-law/
https://ekvastra.in/category/wikipedia/
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Not quite. They have cliques who block non-Leftist and non-jihadist people from being Wiki editors. I myself don’t have all that time, but I’ve read of enough horror stories from people who tried to be, and found themselves locked out b’cos the Wiki editors disagreed w/ them
skeptiker says
Ein erster Schritt in die richtige Richtung.
James Lincoln says
As I’ve said many times before, Wikipedia is a mixed bag.
Nonpolitical things such as sports scores, economic indices, specs on a 65 Mustang, etc., are all “spot on” accurate.
Seeing this, most readers assume that everything else is “spot on” accurate.
But…
With anything political, Wikipedia takes a very hard left turn…