RECENTLY, the government of India summoned administrators of Wikipedia, in response to cricketer Arshdeep Singh's Wikipedia page being edited by trolls who labelled him a "Khalistani". In a cricket-crazy country, his dropped catch in a crucial match against Pakistan would have invited criticism, but distorting his Wikipedia page with falsehoods went beyond the pale.
The Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar through his Twitter handle stated that "no intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation" as it violated the government's hope of a harmless and reliable internet.
Reacting to accusations from the Indian government of "deliberate efforts to incitement," the Wikimedia Foundation, which administers Wikipedia, mentioned that Singh's Wikipedia page had been rectified and secured, with only "trusted editors" now permitted to alter it. The Wikimedia Foundation also stated that none of its officials had been summoned. However, the Wikimedia Foundation has received an email from the IT ministry questioning the event. The Foundation said that it or Wikipedia does not presently have an office in India.
Wikipedia has become a household name ever since its inception in January 2001. It defines itself as a "multilingual free online encyclopedia scripted and preserved by a group of volunteers via open teamwork and a wiki-based editing system." Wikipedia's encyclopedic matter is user-created. This indicates that anyone can add to its knowledge base by making changes to existing pages for improvement or alteration and can even insert new pages. This differentiates Wikipedia from conventional encyclopedias that feature content from recognized authors. While this functioning model has its merits in so far that it permits democratization of knowledge, unrestricted access to Wikipedia has also resulted in worries related to the trustworthiness of facts that it presents.
This story is from the October 3, 2022 edition of India Legal.
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This story is from the October 3, 2022 edition of India Legal.
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