Tag Archives: Wikipedia

The Associated Press reports: English Wikipedia raked in more than 84 billion views this year, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia. And the most popular article was about ChatGPT (yes, the AI chatbot that’s seemingly everywhere today). The second most-read article on Wikipedia in 2023 was the annual …

The Hill reports: Billionaire Elon Musk offered Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, $1 billion under the condition that it changes its name to “Dickipedia.” He had previously posted a screenshot of a personal appeal from Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stating that the website is “not for sale.” Wales has been an outspoken critic of Musk. In May, Wales condemned Musk’s …

The Daily Beast reports: Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is a notable alumnus of Manhattan College—at least according to the Bronx liberal arts school’s Wikipedia page. The congressman, a former state lawmaker who upset Democratic campaign chief Sean Patrick Maloney last year, may boast a resume that merits the honor. But it wasn’t the Wikipedia hive mind that put Lawler on …

Mediaite reports: Longshot presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has accused his prospective Republican rivals of parroting him, but Ramaswamy himself has made an intentional effort to conceal his own biography, even paying a Wikipedia editor to remove potentially politically damaging details about his past from his page. Ramaswamy’s Wikipedia page includes the warning, “this article has multiple issues,” with a note …

Reuters reports: The Wikimedia Foundation was fined 2 million roubles ($27,000) by a Russian court on Tuesday after the authorities accused it of failing to delete “misinformation” about the Russian military from Wikipedia, the courts service said. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Russia introduced sweeping new laws restricting what people can report about the conflict, fining or blocking …

Ars Technica reports: Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censorship authority, issued another demand on Tuesday for Wikipedia to remove what it called “unreliable socially significant information.” The agency warned that failure to comply could lead to fines of up to 4 million rubles ($50,000). A March 3 statement on the Wikimedia website declared that “we will not back down in the face of …

Politico reports: Donald Trump should have been banned from Twitter “a long time ago,” said Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Speaking at a media conference in Amsterdam, Wales said the U.S. president and other high-profile users such as entrepreneur Elon Musk were able to get away with statements on the social media platform which others would not. “A lot …

The Independent reports: Burger King’s latest advert for its Whopper has backfired after the iconic burger’s Wikipedia page was manipulated to claim that the product contains “cyanide” and is “the worst hamburger product” the fast food chain has ever made. On Wednesday, Burger King released a 15-second advert in the US which claimed there was not enough time to explain …

Thanks to a quote on his Wikipedia page, the first Google search page for Ben Carson includes a link to the Wikipedia entry for NAMBLA. Breitbart says this is the result of “leftist trolling” despite Carson’s infamous 2013 mention of NAMBLA during a denouncement of same-sex marriage. They write: Carson referred to NAMBLA in a March 2013 Hannity appearance. “Marriage …

As I reported yesterday, Greenland’s Parliament has voted to adopt Denmark’s laws on same-sex marriage. That vote goes into effect on October 1st, prompting Wikipedia’s map monitors to change Greenland’s color to mustard, which means “pending.” That tiny dot of dark green in the Middle East is Israel and if you squint you’ll see that same-sex marriage is also pending …

The last time Wikipedia updated its marriage map, I mused that it was probably the last change we’d see before SCOTUS rules. However following yesterday’s stayed decision in Alabama, the map monitors have advanced the state from purple to mustard. In case you are wondering, it was back in January when Alabama went from red to sapphire.

Capital New York has the scoop: Computers operating on the New York Police Department’s computer network at its 1 Police Plaza headquarters have been used to alter Wikipedia pages containing details of alleged police brutality, a review by Capital has revealed. “The matter is under internal review,” an NYPD spokeswoman, Det. Cheryl Crispin, wrote in an email to Capital after …

The editors of Wikipedia’s marriage equality page today introduced purple-shaded states to reflect the “complicated” situations in Kansas, Missouri, and Alabama. Most counties in Alabama had issued same-sex marriage licenses for several weeks after a federal court legalized same-sex marriage, but all have stopped in response to a conflicting order by the state supreme court. However, the state court did …

Three color changes in three days. Is that a record?

Our insider at Wikipedia writes this morning to say that he was against advancing Alabama to sapphire on Friday, but was overruled by the other editors.

And the number of red states shrinks again.

As Mississippi no longer has a set date for its marriage stay to expire, the Wikipedia map monitors have retreated its color from cerulean to goldenrod. Or is it brown mustard?

Not only has South Carolina joined the states displaying our favorite color, Wikipedia’s marriage monitors have decided to remove the red stripes of shame from Kansas even though most counties continue to withhold marriage licenses and state agencies continue to refuse to recognize the marriages that have taken place. Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration will not make any policy changes to …

Big Sky Country has already turned our favorite shade of blue, thanks to our sort of in-house Wikipedia marriage map monitor. Now we wait for the usual GOP flailing. Is this state #34 or can we not yet fully count Kansas?