During a period when he owes banks billions as a result of his acquisition of X, Elon Musk criticizes Wikipedia for its alleged bias and proposes a $1 billion donation contingent on the site changing its name to ‘Dickipedia.’
The owner of Twitter and X took a series of jabs at the online encyclopedia and its operator, the Wikimedia Foundation, accusing them of displaying bias and frequently soliciting donations.
“Have you ever wondered why the Wikimedia Foundation is seeking so much funding? It doesn’t seem necessary to run Wikipedia; you can fit the entire text on your phone!” he tweeted on Sunday 22nd of October.
Musk failed to mention that it cost $2.7 million to maintain Wikipedia’s websites the previous year. Nonetheless, he decided to mock Wikipedia with his own donation offer.
In another tweet, he said, “I will donate one billion dollars if they agree to change their name to Dickipedia. A minimum of one year is required for the name change. I’m not a fool, after all,” he added.
These statements indicate that Musk perceives Wikipedia as a competitor to Twitter, which has been struggling to increase its user base. It also seems that Musk has an issue with Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia. Several days earlier, a company advised by Wales, NewsGuard, released a report stating that a significant amount of the top misinformation regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict on Twitter originates from verified accounts.
This report contradicted Musk’s assertion that Twitter is now the most reliable source of news and diverse opinions. Musk fired back, contending that Twitter’s Community Notes feature, which depends on crowdsourcing to fact-check tweets, is already more accurate than Wikipedia. (The feature just started requiring contributors to provide sources for their entries.)
Musk claimed, “Wikipedia is inherently hierarchical and therefore susceptible to the biases of higher-ranking editors, regardless of their merits.”
In 2022, the foundation reported earning $154 million in revenue while incurring $146 million in expenses.
According to a foundation page, 43% of the expenses are directed toward engineering improvements and product development, while another 32% is allocated to grants, projects, and tools that support Wikipedia communities.
This feud comes just weeks after Musk decided to sue another nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, for its criticism of Twitter’s approach to combatting hate speech on the social media platform. Last month, Musk also threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League for allegedly encouraging advertisers to leave Twitter.
Meanwhile, market research firm Similarweb estimates that traffic to Twitter has decreased by around 15% year-over-year since Musk took over the social media platform.
