New Delhi: The Centre has written to Wikipedia noting numerous complaints of bias and inaccuracies in information provided by it, and asked why it should not be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary, sources said on Tuesday.
The communication from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said there is a view that a small group exercises editorial control on its pages.
Wikipedia advertises itself as a free online encyclopedia where volunteers can create or edit pages on personalities, issues or various subjects.
Wikipedia has recently come under a lot of fire over the accusations of being biased and inaccurate. Especially with the US Presidential Elections going on, X owner Elon Musk has called it out for supporting far-Left theories. Now, the Indian government has put Wikipedia on notice. According to ANI, the government has written to Wikipedia highlighting several complaints of bias and inaccuracy. In the letter, the Centre pointed out that a small group of people have editorial control over the website.
It has asked the free public encyclopedia why it shouldn’t be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary.
Wikipedia has yet to respond to the Indian government over these complaints.
Earlier in September, the Delhi High Court had warned Wikipedia that it would block the website if it failed to comply with Indian laws. The High Court issued a contempt of court notice against Wikipedia. This strong move came after Wikipedia failed to furnish details of who edited the page of the news agency Asian News International (ANI).
The agency filed a defamation lawsuit against Wikipedia, alleging that the platform permitted defamatory edits labelling the news organization as a “government propaganda tool.”
The Delhi High Court judge told Wikipedia counsel, “I will impose contempt… It is not a question of Defendant No 1 [Wikipedia] not being an entity in India. We will close your business transactions here. We will ask the govt to block Wikipedia… Earlier also you people have taken this argument. If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India.” This statement came on the heels of Wikipedia not disclosing details of three subscriber accounts who made the edit on ANI’s page.
ANI argues that the description’s content is defamatory and that Wikipedia, as a publicly used platform and intermediary, should not operate like a private-sector entity.
