Led by its enterprise mannequin, Twitter and Facebook misinformation managed « badly » through the presidency of Donald trumpsays the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, in an interview with . on the event of the 20th anniversary of the free on-line encyclopedia.
Interviewed in the UK, the place he resides and obtained nationality in 2019, the American criticized the perspective of those two giants of social networks.
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In his opinion, the accountability for the January 6 assault on the Capitol lies « 100% » with the controversial president of the USA, however Twitter and Facebook « had a tough time coping with disinformation. »
« Concerning Donald Trump, they did a foul job for a protracted, very long time, » says Wales, because the president « clearly unfold disinformation. »
After the assault in Washington, the 2 networks indefinitely suspended the accounts of the Republican billionaire, who used them to transmit accusations to tens of thousands and thousands of individuals with out proof of electoral fraud.
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Wikipedia just isn’t excellent
Twenty years after its creation, Wikipedia is without doubt one of the hottest web sites on the earth, consulted greater than 15 billion instances a month.
Some 55 million articles seem on this participatory platform in additional than 300 languages.
Additionally it is, as Wales initially thought, « a world through which each inhabitant of the planet has free entry to the sum of all human data. »
The 2003 Wikipedia founder’s determination to make it a nonprofit is without doubt one of the causes he believes the net encyclopedia didn’t face the identical robust choices and unfavourable responses as Twitter and Facebook.
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« They’ve a enterprise mannequin that claims, ‘We’d like as many web page views as attainable,’ » he says. « And that additionally hurts their model, in order that they have to repair it, however I believe it’s going to price them. »
In contrast to Facebook and Twitter, carefully related to cultural conflicts in the USA and the unfold of misinformation around the globe, Wikipedia is taken into account one of many final and greatest examples of utopia on the origins of the web.
Nevertheless, within the early 2000s it was the lies and aggressiveness of Wikipedia customers that sparked debates about digital regulation.
« I all the time say that we have now by no means been as dangerous as individuals mentioned or nearly as good as individuals suppose, » says Wales. “We all know that Wikipedia just isn’t excellent. We nonetheless have loads of work to do.
« Actually horrible opinions »
Wales argues that Wikipedia is basically totally different from social media.
« We now have a really clear mission: to create an encyclopedia », he affirms and assures that this postulate is « very totally different from a social community that claims, ‘publish what you suppose, publish your opinions’, as a result of the reality is that many individuals actually have opinions horrible ”.
▶ ️Twitter received bored with Trump and locks his account completely
The American believes that Wikipedia nonetheless has challenges to beat, together with the problem of the variety of the hundreds of « Wikipedians », the title given to editors and internet directors.
In 2021, the net encyclopedia will implement a code of conduct with sanctions towards insults and harassment, which prior to now have been directed at minorities.
Its growth « has taken longer than it ought to have, » admits Wales, however explains that his neighborhood is so massive « that it takes a very long time to determine issues out and get buy-in. »
His ambition for the following 20 years is sort of just like that of the primary 20. In 2006, Wales set a purpose of 100,000 Wikipedia entries for every language with greater than 1,000,000 audio system. « It can take us at the least one other 20 years to get there, » he warns.
However he hopes to have created an establishment that may final so long as the British College of Oxford, which is greater than 900 years outdated. « We’re actually focusing our efforts on learn how to construct an establishment that may final, » he says.
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