Newsweek: Elon Musk Takes Aim at Wikipedia

[Dennis Donovan]

Newsweek - Elon Musk Takes Aim at Wikipedia

Published Dec 24, 2024 at 12:53 PM EST
Updated Dec 25, 2024 at 12:26 PM EST

By James Bickerton
US News Reporter

What's New
Elon Musk has urged his followers not to donate to Wikipedia, which he branded "Wokepedia," until "they restore balance to their editing authority."

The tech billionaire made the claim on X (formerly Twitter), which he owns, in response to another user who shared a graph from the online encyclopedia's 2023-4 annual report that showed 29 percent of its budget had been spent on "equity" and "safety & inclusion."

Newsweek contacted Musk, via the Tesla and SpaceX press offices, by email on Tuesday for comment.

Why It Matters
According to data from digital marketing platform Semrush, in November Wikipedia was the fourth-most-visited website in the world, with monthly traffic of around 6.7 billion visits.

Wikipedia's popularity, combined with the fact it provides information about notable political figures and events, make it highly influential. The platform can be edited by anybody, meaning the pages of controversial individuals are often fought over by multiple users with different views about the content.

What To Know
On X in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Musk shared a post by influential conservative leaning account "Libs of TikTok," adding: "Stop donating to Wokepedia until they restore balance to their editing authority."



/snip

This is disturbing...

[Midnight Writer]

1. Time for me to donate to Wikipedia. Thanks for reminding me, Elon.

[B.See]

13. Ditto.

[mountain grammy]

16. Yep!

[elleng]

26. Ditto; did it recently, will do again.

[Mme. Defarge]

28. Moi aussi!

[yellow dahlia]

44. Ditto

[bluesbassman]

2. The thin skinned "free speech" advocate strikes again.

Biggest hypocrite on the planet. And with almost half a trillion dollars at his disposal, the most dangerous.

[Aviation Pro]

3. Fuck that Afrikaner

Fuck his unbalanced, uncoordinated ass.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. He is not an Afrikaner.

[wnylib]

27. From a wealthy White family of Dutch descent in South Africa.

[DavidDvorkin]

29. One ancestor of Dutch descent, the rest English

Not uncommon in South Africa. His family is English, and his native language is English.

[Swede]

42. Musk's mother is Canadian.

Born in Regina Saskatchewan

[DavidDvorkin]

43. Yes, but her family moved to Pretoria when she was two years old

White ancestry is often very mixed and murky in South Africa -- often much murkier than the specific white people would want to know.

[2naSalit]

4. I can't decide...

Whether he's a cancer or a virus or some mutation of both.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

10. A number of viruses cause cancer...

The asshole's a walking, talking HPV.

[2naSalit]

14. That's it!

Thanks! I knew there was a connection there.

[BBbats]

5. I chip in a very tiny amount every month.

Guess I gotta raise it.

[kysrsoze]

6. BFD... as long as he doesn't try to buy it. Who wants his/their filthy money anyway?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. Lots of fun pages: Eelon must've tried to buy it in 2022 bc special pages & banners say "Wikipedia is not for sale"

Jimmy Wales tweeted about it in 2022.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not_for_sale

Excerpt (emphasis added):

If you disagree with how Wikipedia is run...
Disagreement is a normal part of the human experience. On Wikipedia, we resolve disagreements through discussion and consensus, not by throwing money at the problem or scoring other means of gaining power. If you still disagree with consensus, it's more productive to move on and accept the decision, rather than trying to buy out the website. See Wikipedia:Dispute resolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ten_things_you_may_not_know_about_Wikipedia#We_are_not_for_sale

But it is for sale! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Buying_Wikipedia

As of November 12, 2002, Wikipedia is officially FOR SALE!

That's right! All 6,929,888 articles on English Wikipedia (including this one) could be yours to do with as you please. You could delete rival products, win presidential elections, change national borders, anything at all!
The current price of Wikipedia is:

$87,349,953,439,365,583.93

Buying instructions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Buying_Wikipedia/Instructions
Just a part of it:

Preferred instructions

Fly into Kansas City International Airport.
From there, request a Kia Soul from the nearby car salesman and go west, then take the 124th right.
Then, turn your car 136 degrees and continue for 53 miles (85 km),

then turn left,
then left again,
and left again- wait... yeah, left again. You should arrive at a metal bridge.

We will be under there waiting for the transaction to happen. We will only be there at 4:36 pm.
Then, we will give you a 42-letter passcode to approve the transaction. You must perform the Secret handshake listed under section 348 B-27a of the Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines instruction handbook.

Half of your payment must be made in cash, and a fifth of the other half will be performed credit. The remaining four-fifths of the other half will be paid out via Wiki-tokens at precisely 6:34 am.

Wikipedia Purchase Management Team: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Buying_Wikipedia/Wikipedia_Purchase_Management

Johnathan Secret: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Buying_Wikipedia/Johnathan_Secret

How to Meet Jerry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Buying_Wikipedia/How_to_meet_Jerry

[Bernardo de La Paz]

33. LOL, Wikipedia insists on calling "X" Twitter. Must be real reason Musk tried to buy it

https:/ /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(Twitter) redirects to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

[Irish_Dem]

7. Destroy everything that makes the world a better place.

[sunflowerseed]

8. F that mother fer!

Why do they think they get to decide how everyone lives AND thinks!!

[The Unmitigated Gall]

9. Dick-Cheese Musk...

Thanks for the heads-up. Just signed up for a monthly contribution.

Fuck you.

[B.See]

11. What else would one expect from a fascist

bigot supporter of neo Nazis in Germany and reportedly a long standing member of a S.African racist sect?

Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account

World's largest spreader of Reich winged propaganda wants to shut down that which he cannot control. Typical.

All the more reason to donate to em, imo.

[kimbutgar]

15. I donated to them a couple of weeks ago

Wikipedia is my go to first then I check out the sources they cite.

[riverbendviewgal]

17. I donate to wikipedia

It is a trusted source I use very often.

[Mblaze]

18. Since anyone can provide other information

to Wiki entries, where is balance lost? MAGA just can't understand that reality has a liberal bias in these days of Trumpformation.

[Mblaze]

19. Elon is working on

Mein Kampfopedia.

[Grokenstein]

20. Oh, like any of those scumbags ever donated in the first place... nt

[WarGamer]

21. Wikipedia is a buggy and cart in an automotive world...

Generative AI will kill it...

If I need to look up the Cinematographer for "Gone with the Wind" it's faster just to ask Gemini or Apple AI or ChatGPT or Grok.

[Henry203]

37. Just like the 2 lawyers

Who used it and it brought up 2 fake matters and got sanctioned by the judge.

[haele]

38. However, when Wikipedia posts incorrect info -

It's typically corrected in a timely manner, and there's footnotes and attributions up the wazoo.
When AI hallucinates, it tends to perpetuate mis-information as other LLMs scrape the hallucination as fact.

I've yet to see an LLM version of AI that isn't prone to hallucination when let loose.
AI is more like a locomotive, dependent on the engineer and condition of the track it travels on.
There's still a lot of cart and horse required before AI reaches the Automobile stage where any driver can use it to get to whatever destination they need.

[Kingofalldems]

40. Thanks--I just donated to Wikipedia after reading your post.

[Grumpy Old Woman]

22. Support Wikipedia

Thanks for the reminder to continue supporting Wikipedia.

I wanted to note that the AI response I get when googling something often is almost word-for-word from the Wikipedia entry.

[allegorical oracle]

23. After he jumped on TSF bandwagon, I went to Wikipedia to read the entry. It

wasn't especially kind to him. Wondered, after it became clear that he's a cranky bastage, if he wouldn't move to have it taken down.

Thing is, everything written appeared to be footnoted, so don't see where he'd have much of a case. Still, wealth buys a lot of capitulation.

[AverageOldGuy]

24. I donated $25 to Wikipedia today . . .

. . . going back to give another $25.

[Seinan Sensei]

25. I can't wait to read the Wikipedia article

About how mElon-Head doesn’t want Wikipedia to exist.

[Cosmocat]

32. No, this is bullshit

This is obvious gas lighting bullshit.

https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/#a1-2023-2024

[Aussie105]

34. Elon just wants to 'tweak' a few things . . .

He wants to ''adjust' their attitude, their understanding of any history that relates to him, and 'adjust' any future info he might find distasteful.
'Eiting' is censorship.

Might be difficult, unless he buys them out and does an 'X' on them.

[Henry203]

35. I always donate

And did it before I read this. I use it all the time.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

36. Who is surprised by this?

Musk hates anyone who does not share his racist views

[Initech]

39. Fuck, stop normalizing this shit!

Fuck libsoftiktok, if there is a hell, may that wretched piece of shit rot in the hottest circle of it!

[Dennis Donovan]

41. What?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

45. Musk tried to buy Wikipedia and his offer was rejected

Link to tweet