No government notice received in the last two days, says Wikimedia Foundation
According to the Wikipedia spokesperson, more than 850 million Indians visit the site every month, the fifth highest in the world.
The Wikimedia Foundation (WF) has not received any official notice from the Indian government in the last two days, a spokesperson for the non-profit said just a couple of days after news agencies ANI and PTI, citing government sources, reported that the ministry of information and broadcasting had issued a notice to Wikipedia casting aspersions about bias and inaccuracies in its articles, and asked why it should not be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary.
“The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia, has not received any official notice from the Indian government regarding editing practices or the accuracy of content on Wikipedia in the last two days,” the platform’s spokesperson said in a statement.
“Wikipedia volunteers carefully curate information from reliable news sources and other reputable external publications; they don’t add original content to the site. This approach ensures that Wikipedia compiles information from credible sources. All sources are cited on article pages, upholding our commitment to transparency,” the spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, more than 850 million Indians visit the site every month, the fifth highest in the world. “Globally, more than 260,000 volunteers contribute content to the site,” the statement said as it mentioned that Indian Wikipedia editors are constantly ranked as “one of the top number of contributing editors from a single country globally”.
“Wikipedia articles are required by its editorial policies to maintain a neutral point of view. Volunteers from many backgrounds and political persuasions edit Wikipedia. This model reinforces that Wikipedia articles present a broad view of knowledge about a topic, rather than any one perspective,” the statement continued.
The platform issued the statement in response to the reports by the news agencies. HT has reached out to MIB for comment and a copy of the communication that had been reportedly sent to WF.
In 2022, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) had sent a communication to Wikimedia Foundation to provide information on action taken on Wikipedia pages of cricketer Arshdeep Singh and an Indian footballer with the same name that were tinkered with. This email was sent at least seven hours after the Economic Times reported about the incident.
This development comes amid ongoing legal proceedings against WF in the defamation suit filed by ANI over its Wikipedia page describing the news agency as a “propaganda tool for the incumbent government”. In its suit, ANI sought details of three anonymous editors who had edited the page. It must be noted here that WF has no physical presence in India.